President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi accepted resignations submitted by the presidential advisers of former president Adly Mansour on Tuesday. Presidential spokesman Ihab Badawi was cited by state-run MENA as saying: "The presidential institution highly appreciates their efforts in the past period of the transitional phase and wishes them continued luck and success." The former advisers are: Mansour's political adviser, humanist and strategist Mostafa Higazy; his constitutional adviser, Ali Awad Saleh; adviser on women's affairs Sakina Fouad; media adviser Ahmed El-Moslimany; former General Intelligence director and adviser on security affairs Mohamed Raafat Abdel-Wahed Shehata and scientific affairs adviser Essam Heggy. All but one of the presidential advisers were appointed last July, in the aftermath of the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood politician and former president Mohamd Morsi, except for the adviser on scientific affairs who was appointed in September. The advisers' resignations come one day after the resignation of the interim cabinet led by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb Monday morning. Al-Sisi, who was inaugurated on Sunday, reappointed Mehleb hours after the cabinet's resignation. The prime minister must now form a new cabinet and will be expected to present "the government and its programme to the new House of Representatives at its first session," as stipulated in the constitution. With Al-Sisi's inauguration, Mansour's 11 month-long tenure as interim president came to an end. Al-Sisi's first decision as president on Monday was to grant the former judge the Order of the Nile, the state's highest honour. Mansour, 69, is set to return to his position before the presidency as head of the Supreme Constitutional Court.
