Anwar el Sadat
Anwar el Sadat, (1918-81). Egyptian statesman He held important posts under Nasser and succeeded him as president in 1970. In late 1977 he visited Jerusalem on a peace mission to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. His was the first Arab plane to touch down at an Israeli airport since 1948, when the state of Israel was founded. For this peace initiative he and Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister, were jointly awarded the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize. Egypt and Israel signed a formal treaty (the Camp David Agreement) in 1979; Israeli troops were withdrawn from the Sinai peninsula a year later. Sadat was assassinated by Islamic extremists.
