{{ Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi defended his handling of some of the nation’s most pressing problems in a nearly two-hour television interview on Saturday, and pledged to appoint new Cabinet ministers in a move that could ease the country’s deep political polarization.}}
Reshuffling the Cabinet has been a key demand of the nation’s largely liberal and secular opposition, which is at odds with Morsi’s Islamist backers over a myriad of issues that have surfaced since the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
In the interview with Al-Jazeera, Morsi said the Cabinet changes would involve a number of key ministries, although he did not say how many. He also did not give a timeline or say which ministries would be affected.
It would be the second reshuffle since Morsi took office in July. The last ministerial shake-up in January led to the appointment of a new interior minister to oversee the police force.
Rights groups allege that since Mohammed Ibrahim took the post, police have used excessive force, killing dozens of people nationwide in protests against Morsi.
There is no guarantee that a reshuffle of Cabinet posts would help bridge the deepening divide between Morsi’s opponents and supporters, but it could help the country build political consensus around painful austerity measures needed to secure a nearly $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
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