Egyptian Vice President for Foreign Affairs Mohamed ElBaradei, announced his resignation in a letter to the interim president on today, according to Ahram Online.

“The decision to start the operation to forcefully disperse the sit-ins were taken jointly by the police and military leadership without prior notification of the Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi or the vice president for external relations,” Ahram Online quoted sources as saying.

It said that “ElBaradei’s resignation comes after scores were killed in a crackdown by security forces on loyalists of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

“ElBaradei earlier demanded high-level assurances that the operation would not step away from the boundaries of law and according to two sources “threatened to resign if the death toll among the protestors proved to be high.”

•Photo shows ElBaradei.