Former president ‘gave it all before reality set in’

Hosni Mubarak, who died last week at the age of 91, was president of Egypt for three decades (1981-2011). That’s more than Gamal Abdul Nasser (who served for 14 years, from 1956-1970) and Anwar Sadat (1970-1981) combined.

Mubarak had nothing close to the charisma of either Nasser or Sadat — tough acts to follow. He came to power following Sadat’s assassination during a military parade in October 1981. Mubarak, injured in the attack, was seated next to Sadat.

Few thought Mubarak would hang on to become Egypt’s longest serving president. He kept the peace Sadat negotiated with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin under US President Jimmy Carter at Camp David in 1978, while at the same time rebuilding Egypt’s Arab relations. Saddam Hussein had choreographed Egypt’s expulsion from the Arab League in 1979 in response to the widespread Arab rejection of the Camp David Accords. Mubarak, leveraging Iraq’s desperation in the Iran-Iraq War, worked Egypt’s way back into the Arab fold under Mubarak. By 1989, the Arab League headquarters was back in Cairo.