Protests in Egypt. Photo: Screenshot.

Egyptian presidential spokesman Ahmed El-Moslamany announced Tuesday that interim president Adly Mansour has assigned Hazem El-Beblawi to the post of the prime minister of Egypt, the state-run Ahram news site reported.

El-Beblawi, a prominent liberal economist, had served as minister of finance and deputy prime minister from July to December 2011 in Essam Sharaf’s cabinet during Egypt’s first post-revolution transitional phase.

He is a founding member of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party.

Mansour also appointed former UN nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei as vice president.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that Egyptian authorities have begun questioning 650 people over their suspected involvement in violence on Monday outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo. More than 50 people were killed there during protests by supporters of recently ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Also Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood rejected a new timetable announced by the military-backed interim leadership  for amending the Islamist-drafted constitution and holding new parliamentary and presidential elections by early next year.

Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood figure and deputy head of its Freedom and Justice Party, rejected the transition timetable, saying it takes the country “back to zero.”

“The cowards are not sleeping, but Egypt will not surrender. The people created their constitution with their votes,” he wrote on his Facebook page, referring to the constitution that Islamists penned and then were able to pass through into law during Morsi’s year in office.

He said the military and its allies were targeting “not just the president but the nation’s identity, the rights and freedoms of the people and the democratic system enshrined in the constitution.”