EGYPT: Ambassador says Mubarak transferred authority to VP

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has transferred all powers of presidency to his vice president but remains Egypt’s ‘de jure head of state,’ the Egyptian ambassador to Washington said Thursday.

Ambassador Sameh Shoukry told CNN, ‘President Mubarak has transferred all authority to the vice president.’

Asked whether Mubarak remained head of state, Shoukry said, ‘He remains the de jure head of state.’ He said Vice President Omar Suleiman ‘is the de facto president.’

The ambassador told CNN that he had been told by the vice president himself that ‘President Mubarak has transferred all authority to the vice president.’

Shoukry said that Suleiman was ‘now undertaking all the authority of the president under the constitution.’ RELATED

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— Molly Hennessy-Fiske