Sri Lankan president ‘agrees to replace brother as prime minister’

Mahinda Rajapaksa, left, and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Sri Lanka’s president has agreed to replace his older brother as prime minister in a proposed interim government to solve a political impasse caused by the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, a prominent politician said.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa agreed that a national council will be appointed to name a new prime minister and Cabinet comprised of all parties in Parliament, politician Maithripala Sirisena said after meeting with the president.