'Pharaoh' lost power: Egyptian president dies after normalizing relations with Israel

Hosni Mubarak was primarily a military, but as president of Egypt, he has always sought peace, writes Air force.

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Under him, Egypt played a leading role in the search for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Relations with Israel were normalized.

But Mubarak was criticized for using the state of emergency to suppress political opponents, as well as for his unwillingness or inability to fight corruption.

In 2011, a popular uprising forced him to leave power after a 30-year reign.

War pilot

Mohammed Hosni Saeed Mubarak was born on May 4, 1928 in the small village of Kafr al-Musylha Governorate Manufiy in northern Egypt.

He was born in a poor family, but, despite this, he entered the military academy, which he graduated with honors in 1949. He was awarded the rank of lieutenant, and in 1952 he was appointed to the fighter squadron.

In 1959, a young officer visited the Soviet Union, which was the main supplier of weapons for Egypt, and received the qualification of a pilot of the IL-28 front-line bomber.

Yom Kippur War

The second time Mubarak studied in the USSR in 1964-65, having completed a staff training course at the Frunze Military Academy.

Since 1965, he commanded an aviation brigade and was the head of an air base in Cairo.

The combat pilot took part in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Then the Egyptian aviation suffered a heavy defeat and was almost completely destroyed.

In 1969, President Gamal Abdel Nasser made Mubarak the chief of staff of the Air Force.

In 1972, Mubarak was appointed commander of the Air Force and Deputy Minister of Defense of Egypt, and in 1973 received the title of Chief Marshal of Aviation.

As commander of the Egyptian Air Force, Mubarak played a leading role in preparing a surprise attack on Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula at the beginning of the Doomsday War in 1973.

The war ended again with the defeat of Egypt and its allies. But the actions of aviation, which supported the offensive of the Egyptian armored vehicles from the air, which managed to force the Suez Canal, aroused respect among the Egyptians, and Hosni Mubarak became a national hero.

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Attempt

Two years later, the award was his appointment as vice president. President Anwar Sadat was required to appoint a deputy, and he preferred to choose a popular figure as assistant.

Mubarak participated in a discussion of the terms of the Camp David Peace Agreement between Egypt and Israel, which was signed by Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in 1979.

This agreement split Egyptian society. Radical groups felt that the country's interests were being infringed. These groups included the Muslim Brotherhood, which carried out an assassination attempt on Sadat in October 1981, which resulted in his death.

Hosni Mubarak took his place. In the election, he was the only candidate and received 98% of the vote.

The new president, however, did not refuse the Camp David agreement, opposing the growing Islamists and extremist groups, who from time to time continued to remind themselves of themselves in Egypt by attacks on government agencies and tourism industry facilities.

"American Puppet"

Despite the military training received in the USSR and knowledge of the Russian language, Mubarak strove to establish ties with the West.

Mediation in the Arab-Israeli settlement determined Mubarak’s foreign policy throughout his reign and strengthened his alliance with the United States, which provided billions of dollars worth of weapons to Egypt.

Opponents called Mubarak an American puppet. Supporters rejoiced at the relative stability that his rule brought to Egypt, located in the center of an unstable Middle East.

At the same time, Mubarak managed to bring Egypt out of isolation in the Arab world, which for several years turned away from Cairo because of the Camp David agreement.

Egypt was expelled from the League of Arab States in 1979 and reinstated in 10 years. The head office of the organization returned to the banks of the Nile.

In Egypt, repression against opposition parties and groups, arrests and torture of dissidents continued. Elections, according to critics of the regime, were accompanied by widespread fraud.

Iraq

Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1991 was a blow to Mubarak, who claimed that Saddam Hussein personally promised him not to attack Kuwait.

Egypt supported international sanctions against Iraq and offered military assistance to coalition forces in operations against Saddam. He, in turn, called for the overthrow of the government of Mubarak.

The position of Egypt brought him significant benefits. The country has written off foreign debts of billions of dollars. But after 12 years, Mubarak was critical of the United States invasion of Iraq.

In Egypt, with rare exceptions, the situation was calm, but the standard of living of ordinary people remained low. Mubarak managed to attract foreign investment, but most residents did not feel the fruits of this policy.

Mubarak was re-elected as president in the 1987, 1993, and 1999 elections, where he was the only candidate. But in the 2005 election, he got rivals.

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Resigned

After the victory of the Islamic movement Hamas in Palestine, Egypt supported Israel and Western countries in imposing an embargo against the autonomy, closing the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Gaza.

But Mubarak more and more often heard calls, both from Egypt and from outside, that it was time to give way to democracy.

In January 2011, following the example of Tunisia, mass protests began in Egypt, which did not stop for several weeks. People were unhappy with poverty, corruption, unemployment, and the regime of personal power.

Mubarak promised not to run in the upcoming presidential election, but that was not enough. After 18 days of unrest, the man who was compared with the ancient Egyptian pharaohs resigned as head of state.

Four months later, already sick Mubarak had to stand trial. The first meeting was held on August 3, 2011, at which the ex-president, lying on a mobile bed, listened to allegations of corruption and the deliberate murder of demonstrators.

In June 2012, Mubarak was sentenced to life imprisonment for issuing orders to use force against demonstrators, but was acquitted on other charges.

The court decision seemed too lenient to many and provoked demonstrations in the streets of Cairo.

The vicissitudes of fate

The fate of Hosni Mubarak again changed sharply in July 2013, when the former Minister of War in his office, Field Marshal Fattah al-Sisi overthrew and arrested the Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, who had been elected a year earlier. A month later, with a small court, the court ruled to release the former leader from prison and sent him under house arrest at a military hospital in Cairo.

In November of the same year, Hosni Mubarak was acquitted of charges related to the deaths of demonstrators due to procedural reasons - the charges were brought against him too late.

On March 2, 2017, the Egyptian Supreme Court of Appeal finally dropped all charges from the former president, and three weeks later he got out of house arrest.

"Till the last breath"

Hosni Mubarak was not as bright a person as his predecessors Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat, but he was respected as a determined politician, although he did not hesitate to use the repressive apparatus of the state to suppress dissent.

Mubarak managed to find a balance between the world with Israel and the mood of society, as well as historical relations with other Arab countries, which was a very difficult task.

He managed to prove that historical enemies can coexist nearby, and gave hope to his country and the Middle East.

Once Hosni Mubarak promised that he would serve Egypt until his last breath.

In February 2011, he said: “I lived in this country dear to my heart, I fought for it and defended its independence and interests. On this earth I will die. History will judge me, like others.”

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