Omar is 'de facto head of state': Egyptian envoy

Washington: President Hosni Mubarak is now "de jure head of the state" as he has transferred all his powers to his Vice President Omar Suleiman who is now the "de facto head of state", Egyptian Ambassador to the US has said.

"President Mubarak has transferred the powers of the presidency to his vice president, who now undertakes all authorities as president. So we can say that the President is a de jure president, and the Vice President is the de facto president," Egyptian Ambassador in Washington Sameh Shoukry told CNN.

"The President (Mubarak) did say, indicate very clearly, that he was transferring all his presidential authority to the vice president. He had done so after he had referred to the parliament the constitutional amendments upon which the political reform would proceed," he said.

However, Shoukry did not say that Mubarak is no longer the president of the country.

"This is a constitutional issue which needs to be addressed from a very specific legal, constitutional perspective, not from a perspective of any form of spin," he said.

"The President has transferred his authority under Article 82 of the constitution to the vice president to undertake all presidential authority that is incorporated in the constitution. So, currently, the presidential powers are all bestowed in the person of the vice president," he said.

"Apparently, this process has been undertaken with a desire to maintain the legitimacy of the constitutional process," he said.

Suleiman is now undertaking all authority of the presidency under the constitution.

"The only three issues that the Vice President cannot make any determination on are making amendments to the constitution or dissolving parliament or firing the cabinet," the ambassador said, adding no one can make a decision on these issues now.

Asked once more for clarification, Shoukry said, "the head of state of Egypt is the president, who has transmitted all his powers to the vice president... The de jure head of state is Hosni Mubarak. The de facto head of state is Omar Suleiman."