Who is Hosni Mubarak ?

Now, revolution in Egypt became a hot global issue, and Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's third and longest-serving president also became popular. Seems that everyone want to know who is he.

Who is he?

Hosni Mubarak was born on May 4, 1928 in the Nile delta province of Minufiya. He had four siblings and his father was a minor official in the Ministry of Justice. Mubarak's village of Kafr-El Meselha was known for its schools and had produced four cabinet ministers. Mubarak did well in school and completed primary schooling in his village and secondary studies in the nearby capital of Shibin El-Kom, Egypt, before going on to Egypt's Military Academy and then its Air Academy.

 He graduated from the Air Academy in 1950, completing his studies in only two years by attending year-round. He became a pilot and received part of his training in the former Soviet Union.Hosni Mubarak married with Suzanne and have two son sons, Alaa and Gamal Mubarak.

Military career

Mubarak was an instructor at the Air Academy and commanded Egypt's bomber force in the Yemen civil war in the 1960s. He was named director of the Air Academy in 1967 and given the important task of rebuilding the air force, which the Israelis had destroyed in the Six Day War of June 1967. Mubarak moved up to air force chief of staff in 1969 and commander in chief in 1972. He helped plan a successful surprise attack on Israeli forces occupying the east.

Became a president

Before he ruled Egypt, Anwar Sadat was the president. On October 1981, Anwar Sadat was assasinated by Islamic fundamentalist and his position was taken by his vice president,Hosni Mubarak. President Sadat named Mubarak as vice president in 1975.

Taking over as president, he moved quickly to crush an Islamic uprising and jailed over two-thousand five-hundred members of militant (engaging in violence) Islamic groups. Mubarak kept most of Sadat's foreign and domestic policies, including the Camp David treaty and Sadat's close ties to the United States. All the Arab states but three had criticized Egypt for the treaty with Israel, so Mubarak tried to rebuild relations with Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat (1929–). It was Mubarak who encouraged Arafat to compromise and recognize Israel's right to exist.

Egypt isolated?

When Hosni Mubarak became a president, Egypt was isolated. When Mubarak assumed power, Egypt was isolated from Arab and Muslim countries, many of whom had broken off diplomatic ties after Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

In one of its greatest diplomatic defeats, Egypt was kicked out of the Arab League and its headquarters were moved from Cairo to Tunisia. Mubarak's first foreign policy mandate was to bring his country back into the Arab fold and to resume ties with major players in the region.

His first success was in building a relationship with the then influential Arab leader Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, whose country was locked in a bloody war with Iran.Egypt signed on as Iraq's ally in the conflict, providing military assistance and expertise to Baghdad.
By the time the Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988, Egypt had successfully emerged from its isolation. In 1990, in a move spearheaded by Iraq and Yemen, the Arab League headquarters were returned to Cairo.But the Arab rapprochement was short-lived as Egypt opposed Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Mubarak urged Saddam to withdraw his forces from Kuwait; when Baghdad failed to do so, Egypt joined the US-led international effort to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait

source:http://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Mubarak-Hosni.html
           http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/12/200912693048491779.html