Egypt’s former US ambassador becomes new FM

Nabil Fahmy, a former ambassador to Washington, has been chosen as the new foreign minister of Egypt. Emerging from a meeting with Prime Minister-designate Hazem Biblawi, Fahmi told reporters he was offered the top diplomat job and has accepted. Fahmy served as Egypt’s ambassador to the US between 1999 and 2008. Incumbent Foreign Minister Mohammad Kamel Amr has refused to keep his portfolio in the new government. Biblawi received Sunday a number of candidates expected to join his new government. The premier-designate received Mohammad Mokhtar Gomaa, the dean of the Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar University, who is nominated to head the religious endowment ministry. He also met with Enas Abdel-Dayem, the former head of the Cairo Opera House, who is expected to be the new culture minister. Biblawi was asked to form a new government by interim President Adly Mansour, who was sworn in under a roadmap by the powerful army that ousted elected President Mohammad Morsi and suspended the constitution.