Hosni Mubarak
(1928 - )
Hosni Mubarak is the president of the Arab Republic of Egypt. He was born on the 4th of May 1928, in the province of Minufiya on the Nile Delta. He attended the Air Force Academy and then received training in the former USSR. He then was an officer in the officers corps, became chief of staff and commander.
Under President Sadat he was Vice President, and after his assassination he became President on the 13th of October 1981. His role includes being head of state, supreme commander o the armed forces, and the power to appoint most influential governmental figures. He is a member of the majority party called the National Democratic Party. Mubarak maintains a good relationship with the army, and suppresses the main opposition, the Muslim fundamentalists.
In the international arena, Mubarak maintains a strong tie to the United states, for Egypt receives a large amount of aid. Egypt was also a pioneer within the Arab countries to have diplomatic relations with Israel. As for the rest of the Arab world, Egypt is on good terms with most except for Iraq and Sudan.
Mubarak as president, holds most of the power in Egypt. He is quite a popular figure among the masses of the population because he addresses people in a simple manner. He prefers an attitude of honesty and does not give his people a lot of high promises concerning economic progress. He has always been recognizing the achievements of his predecessors, Nasser and Sadat, in his speeches, especially Sadat's vision of peace. Suzanne Mubarak, his wife, is also a very well respected Public figure, and is active in charity and child development projects. Egypt plays a very pivotal role in the peace process. It maintains good relations with almost all the actors involved and thus could be an important mediator.
Egypt has fought 3 major wars with Israel in 48, 67 and 73. But after camp David Egypt has been at peace with Israel.
Hosni Mubarak had been Sadat’s vice-president since 1974 and, like Sadat, seemed singularly unimpressive prior to assuming the presidency. At first he continued Sadat’s policies but with less flamboyance and more domestic sensitivity. He allowed the publication of Islamic newspapers and downplayed the Israeli connection. At the same time, he accelerated the process of privatization and developed Egypt’s tourist infrastructure which enhanced its lucrative tourist industry. More impressively, he managed to resume diplomatic and trade relations with moderate Arab countries while maintaining the treaty with Israel. By the end of the 1980s Egypt was once again playing a leading role in Arab politics. Egypt’s vital role in support of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in the Gulf War combined with death of socialist-communist influence in the Arab world returned the country to the center of Middle Eastern politics.
However, Egypt’s domestic situation is far from stable. The country’s economic reforms and infrastructural development cannot keep pace with the population explosion and inflation. Extremist Muslim groups launched a campaign of terrorism against foreigners which paralyzed the government and damaged tourism between 1992 and the beginning of 1994. But security forces broke the main terrorist groups in Cairo and Upper Egypt and the summer of 1994 experienced a spectacular revival of tourism, particularly from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.
Although most terrorist cadres have been imprisoned and many have been sentenced to death, the threat to Egypt’s stability remains as Islamic fundamentalism becomes more deeply rooted in Arab societies