Egypt's Sisi tasks PM with forming new cabinet

Egypt’s newly elected President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi charged on Monday the country’s incumbent prime minster with forming the new government, a day after the former army chief said counterterrorism would be his top priority.

Reuters news agency quoted officials and media as saying Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb were expected to retained ministers in leading position such as the finance portfolio.

Sisi was sworn in Sunday as Egypt’s sixth president after winning a landslide election victory.

During a speech marking the transfer of power, Sisi declared himself the leader of “all Egyptians” but vowed that there would be no reconciliation with anyone who had “committed crimes” or “adopted violence” against the Egyptian people, a thinly veiled reference to the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists.

Sisi said his top focus would be on fighting terrorism in the “coming phase.”