Egypt's Interim Leaders Squabble Over Appointment of Prime Minister

Second largest Islamist party objects to choice

The office of the interim Egyptian president is now backtracking on reports of the appointment of Mohamed ElBaradei as prime minister. NPR's Leila Fadel reports this comes "after the second-largest Islamist party in Egypt [Salfi el-Nour], which has so far been on board with the military coup, reportedly rejected the appointment."

ElBaradei's spokeswoman had told NPR that the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency and would be sworn in Saturday afternoon.

The news of ElBaradei's appointment was initially reported by Reuters, , the and others who cited "presidential" sources. The Associated Press added that it heard the same thing from an "opposition source." Just before 1:30 p.m. ET, ElBaradei's spokesman told NPR that he would be sworn in as prime minister in about 30 minutes.