Egypt’s new cabinet held its first meeting on Sunday and urged parties to keep their demonstrations peaceful, as a panel named to amend the constitution called on all sides to contribute.
In the latest violence, militants in the restive Sinai killed two soldiers and a policeman. Supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, meanwhile, called for fresh rallies at foreign embassies in Cairo. Forging ahead with an army “roadmap” for political transition, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy launched a public relations campaign to boost the army-backed administration’s credibility abroad.
The caretaker cabinet, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi, urged “all political parties to express their opinions peacefully, and to renounce violence,” after weeks of mass protests in the capital by pro- and anti-Morsi demonstrators, some of which have led to deadly clashes. The meeting focused on Egypt’s battered economy and the security situation. Unidentified gunmen shot dead the three members of the security forces in the town of El-Arish in separate attacks, in the increasingly lawless Sinai region that has seen regular attacks on security forces since Morsi’s ouster.