Post date: Feb 10, 2011 9:16:19 PM
For some three decades Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was a force for stability that led Egypt back into the center of Middle East politics. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
VARIOUS-MUBARAK LEGACY - For some three decades Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was a force for stability that led Egypt back into the center of Middle East politics.
Thrust into office by the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat, the former air force commander proved far more durable than was initially predicted.
Mubarak pledged to continue implementing Sadat's policies, including the peace process with Israel which had prompted much of the Arab world to shun Egypt.
Widely respected for his calming influence in a turbulent Middle East, Mubarak won U.S. appreciation for his attempts to negotiate an elusive peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.By the beginning of the 1990's Mubarak succeeded in restoring Egypt's ties with Arab countries and persuaded the influential Arab League to return to its former headquarters in Cairo.
During his presidency he survived several assassination attempts, including a spectacular attack on his motorcade in Addis Ababa in 1995. He survived unscathed when gunmen sprayed bullets at his armoured limousine which was taking him to an African summit in the Ethiopian capital.
The 1990s represented a violent decade at home with more than 1,200 killed between 1992 and 1997 as militant groups waged a six-year armed campaign for a purist Islamic state. The political violence culminated, in the bloody Luxor massacre of November 1997 when six gunmen killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians.
Violence erupted again in July 2005 when bombers struck the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing at least 64 and denting Mubarak's image as a guarantor of security and stability.
During a parliamentary address in November 2006 Mubarak gave every indication he planned to stand for a sixth term in 2011 and retain the leadership for the remainder of his life.
Elections in November 2010 removed most dissenting voices from a parliament. The banned Muslim Brotherhood boycotted the election
In January hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding an end to Mubarak's 30-year rule. In a first indication that he was preparing an eventual handover of power, Mubarak responded by appointing his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as Vice-President.
On February 1, Mubarak announced he would not run again for Egypt's presidency but insisted he would serve out his six-year term working for a smooth transfer of power.
Deborah Lutterbeck, Reuters.