Anwar Sadat

Who was Anwar Sadat?

Anwar El Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. In his eleven years as president, he changed Egypt's direction, departing from some of the economic and political principles of Nasserism by re-instituting the multi-party system and launching the Infitah economic policy.

Sadat was a senior member of the Free Officers group that overthrew Farouk I in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and a close confidant of President Gamal Abdul Nasser, whom he succeeded as President in 1970. As president, he led Egypt in the October War of 1973 to re-acquire Egyptian territory lost to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, making him a hero in Egypt and, for a time, the wider Arab World. Afterwards, he engaged in negotiations with Israel, culminating in the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. This won him the Nobel Peace Prize but also made him unpopular among many Egyptians and Arabs, and resulted in a temporary suspension of Egypt's membership in the Arab League and eventually his assassination.