Abdel-Halim Abu Ghazala, Egypt's former defense minister, who was once touted as a possible successor to President Hosni Mubarak, has died at age 78.
Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported that the former field marshal died late Saturday at a Cairo military hospital from complications related to throat cancer.
Abu Ghazala served as Egypt's military attache in Washington in the late 1970s where he developed close ties with the U.S. military after Cairo signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. He became minister of defense in 1981 shortly before the assassination of President Anwar Sadat and was sitting next to Sadat when he was assassinated. As defense minister, he worked with Mubarak to hold together the peace treaty with Israel.