CAIRO, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Egypt appointed General Ashraf Salem Zaher as its new defense minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle, a Presidency statement said Wednesday.
Zaher, who was the commandant of the Egyptian Military Academy, replaced General Abdel Majeed Saqr, who had been in the post since July 2024, according to the statement.
The reshuffle was approved by the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the parliament, during its emergency general session on Tuesday. Zaher's appointment was not announced at that time.
President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday witnessed the swearing-in ceremony of the 23 cabinet members. Mostafa Madbouly, who took office in 2018, remained as prime minister.
The reshuffle featured the creation of a Ministry of State for Information and a Ministry of Investment. The international cooperation portfolio was added to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, now renamed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Egyptian Expatriates.
Key appointments feature Hussein Issa as the deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Major General Salah Soliman as the minister of state for military production, and Ahmed Rostom, a senior economist at the World Bank, as the minister of planning. ■