Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb

Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb Giad Al-Haq (Arabic: يوسف صبري أبوطالب جادالحق; May 1929 – 29 September 2008) was an Egyptian colonel general and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

Yousef Sabri Abu Taleb Giad Al-Haq
Minister of Defence of Egypt
In office April 1989 – May 1991
President	Hosni Mubarak
Prime Minister	Atef Sedki
Preceded by	Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala
Succeeded by	Mohamed Hussein Tantawi
Personal details
Born	24 May 1929
Died	29 September 2008 (aged 79)
Political party	Independent
Military service
Allegiance	Egypt
Branch/service	Egyptian Army
Years of service	1948–1991
Rank	Colonel General
Commands	Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
Battles/wars	1948 Palestine war Suez Crisis Six-Day War Yom Kippur War Gulf War

Military career

Abu Taleb participated in five wars from the 1948 Palestine war until the gulf war. He also served in Egypt's wars with Israel, and commanded the Third Army's artillery at Suez in the 1973 war, when Israeli forces encircled the city. And, like his predecessor, he graduated from Cairo's military academy, then trained in the United States and the Soviet Union before President Sadat broke with Moscow in the early 1970s. He served briefly as Assistant Defense Minister in 1979.

Public career

Abu Taleb became governor of Cairo in 1983. He won popularity as Governor of Cairo because of improvements in the telephone system, efforts to ease congestion and moves to clean up the city. He was also the Governor of North Sinai where he contributed to the rebuilding of the governorate after the war.

In 1989, then president Hosni Mubarak appointed Abu Taleb to the influential post of minister of defense, replacing Field Marshal Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala.