Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has hailed the accomplishments of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser on the occasion of his 100th birthday, saying that he exerted his utmost efforts to ensure Egypt's well-deserved regional and international status. In a televised speech on Monday, Sisi said Nasser- who was born on 15 January,1918- the Egyptian nation's ability to carry out independent economic development and to defeat poverty and ignorance. "Egypt today celebrates the birth of Gamal Abdel-Nasser whose life-journey embodied the people's hopes for independence and dignity," said Sisi "He expressed those hopes with devotion and pride. That's why the Egyptian people have continued to hold him in high regard, even after his death, and his name remains a symbol of the people's hopes for controlling their destiny." Sisi added that the late president worked hard during his period in office, operating within the limitations and requirements of his era. "Abdel-Nasser's influence extended to inspiring the revolutions of national liberation, not only in the Arab region, but globally, because the struggle of the Egyptian people under his leadership was inspirational and motivational to liberation movements in Africa, Asia, and Latin America," Sisi said. Egypt became a symbol of principles of national dignity, independence, and non-alignment in political foreign policy, Sisi added. The late president believed in the Egyptian people's ability to accomplish national self-development, said Sisi, as well as fighting poverty, ignorance and disease, which were the result of centuries of foreign occupation and the exploitation of the resources and riches of Egypt, and of other nations. "He gave special importance to achieving social justice, to provide the vast majority of the nation with opportunities for a decent life," Sisi said. Born in Alexandria to a family which hailed from Upper Egypt's Assuit, Nasser remains a symbol of dignity, pan-Arabism, and social justice for millions around the Arab world. Nasser and the Free Officers movement led the 23 July, 1952 revolution that toppled the British-backed monarchy in Egypt. He served as president until his death on 28 September, 1970. In his speech on Monday, Sisi said that the Egyptian state continues to devote efforts to accomplishing the country's higher interests, with the security of the nation and its territories among it's main goals, along with prosperity for a population which grew since Nasser's era from 20 million in 1952 to the current figure of 100 million. Source: Ahram online
