Egypt’s Foreign Minister Mohamed El-Orabi has resigned from his post after less than a month in office.

El-Orabi, 60, submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Essam Sharaf yesterday evening.

Speaking to Ahram Online, El-Orabi said that he accepted the post of foreign minister out of respect for Egypt’s revolution and has now chosen to step down to honour the will of the people. In recent weeks, protesters have been demanding that the interim Cabinet be purged of all ministers who served during the Mubarak era.

El-Orabi insisted that he does not regret accepting the post in the first place, as he made the decision fully aware that he would face many obstacles because of the turbulence Egypt has been experiencing since the January 25 revolution erupted. However, he denied circulating reports that he was pressured to hand in his resignation.

One of the shortest serving foreign ministers in Egypt’s modern history, El-Orabi only spent three weeks in his post. The former minister was appointed on 26 June after Nabil El Arabi stepped down to take up the position of the Arab League’s new secretary-general.

El-Orabi has previously served in the Egyptian embassy in Israel and as chief of the cabinet of the foreign minister in 2000 with Amr Moussa, currently a possible candidate for the presidency. He was also Egypt's ambassador of Egypt to Germany for six years.