Who was the President of Egypt during the Yom Kippur War?

Anwar Sadat was Egypt’s president during the Yom Kippur War.

Sadat became president in 1970, succeeding Gamal Abdel Nasser, and remained in office throughout the conflict of October 1973. In coordination with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, he ordered Egypt’s attack across the Suez Canal to recover the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had occupied since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Egyptian troops crossed the canal on 6 October 1973, using bridges and assault boats to break through Israeli defenses. The operation restored Egyptian control over territory on the canal’s eastern bank and helped transform Sadat’s standing at home and across much of the Arab world. The war eventually ended in a ceasefire after major fighting in both Sinai and the Golan Heights.

Gamal Abdel Nasser is the most likely mix-up because he was Egypt’s president during the 1967 Six-Day War. Hosni Mubarak was a senior military commander and later Sadat’s successor, but he was not president during the 1973 war. Sadat later negotiated peace with Israel and shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize with Menachem Begin.