President Anwar el Sadat of Egypt was assassinated on Oct. 6 in an attack mounted during a military parade in Cairo by an army officer and three other men who were later found to be members of the country’s Islamic fundamentalist movement.
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He was succeeded both as President and Prime Minister by Vice-President Hosni Mubarak, who was confirmed in office in a presidential referendum held on Oct. 13 and sworn in the following day.
The attack on President Sadat took place shortly before 1 p.m. local time on Oct. 6 during the military parade held annually to mark the opening of the Egyptian offensive in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. As Egyptian Air Force jets were flying over the parade ground, a lorry in the ground procession stopped in front to of the presidential rostrum, apparently because of mechanical failure. Armed men then emerged from the lorry and approached the rostrum, throwing grenades and firing with automatic weapons. The President was hit almost immediately and seven others were injured, some seriously. It was subsequently established by the Egyptian authorities that four men had mounted the attack, all of whom were arrested.
Those who died as a result of the attack included Prince Shabeb bin Teymour of Oman and Bishop Samuel of the Coptic Church; also killed were the head chamberlain of the presidential household, the presidential photographer, an Egyptian solider, an Omani officer and a Chinese official. Those injured included the President’s personal secretary, Mr Sayed Marei, the Belgian and Cuban ambassadors and diplomatic or military officials from Australia, Oman and the United States; both Vice-President Mubarak and the Egyptians Defence Minister, Lt.-Gen. Mohammed Abdel-Karim Abu Ghazalah sustained slight wounds.
Immediately after the attack President Sadat was flown by helicopter to the Maadi military hospital in southern Cairo and pronounced dead at 2:40 p.m., although the official announcement of his death was not broadcast until four hours later. It was noted by observers that compared with the intense public grief which had attended the death of President Nasser in 1970 the reaction to President Sadat’s assassination was for the most part muted in the country at large. Moreover, official reaction in the Arab world reflected Egypt’s current political isolation, with “rejectionist” states such as Iraq, Libya and Syria (and also the Palestine Liberation Organization) openly acclaiming the assassination and others generally confining their official comments to expression of condolence for the Egyptian people.
Mohamed Anwar el Sadat, who was 62 at the time of his death, had been a close associate of Col. Gamal abdel Nasser in the “Free Officers” organization which overthrew King Farouk in 1952; he subsequently held a succession of official posts, becoming Vice-President in December 1969 and succeeding to the presidency in October 1970 following the death of President Nasser. Initially regarded as an interim President, he consolidated his personal authority in May 1971 by ousting or arresting his political opponents and the following year began the reversal of the late President Nasser’s pro-Soviet stance by expelling Soviet military advisers.
Meanwhile, Egyptian forces had succeeded in recapturing the eastern bank of the Suez Canal in the October 1973 Arab Israeli war, thereby greatly increasing President Sadat’s prestige at home and in the Arab world (even though the fighting eventually ended in stalemate). Despite the conclusion of limited disengagement agreements in January 1974, little progress was made towards a comprehensive settlement in the succeeding two years, with the result that President Sadat in November 1977 undertook the first official visit ever made to Israel by an Arab head of state and informed the Israeli Parliament of Egypt’s desire for a peace agreement in the Middle East.
This historic gesture led directly to the conclusion of the Camp David framework agreements in September 1978 and to the signature of an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in march 1979, in recognition of which process President Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Menahem Begin, were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. However, President Sadat’s initiative towards peace with Israel met with strong opposition from most other Arab states and led to the virtual isolation of Egypt within the Arab world.
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