In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate; the Most Merciful Brothers and Sisters:

I am talking to you on the 34th anniversary of the great October victory; recalling feats of heroism by our armed forces; doing homage to the souls of our faithful martyrs. We also bow in respect for a great generation of the people of Egypt, who refused to give in to defeat, overstepped its shock and suffering, and offered many sacrifices in order to liberate the land and restored national integrity and pride.

As this anniversary passes by, we recall a sad page of the history book of the homeland that the October victory had to come to wind out for ever.

We recall the 1967 defeat shock, the loss of Sinai and the humiliation of occupation; we recall the martyrs of the armed forces and the peaceful civilians who fell down in "Abu-Cabal" and Bahr el-Bear and the bombing, destruction of facilities and evacuation of residents of the Suez Canal cities.

At the same time, as the anniversary of the crossing passes by, we recall the triumphal joy on the same corresponding blessed days of Ramadan, when our servicemen hoisted Egypt's banner high on the Barlev line, thus raising the stature of the homeland. Greetings to a great generation of the people of Egypt, Greetings to those men on the day of crossing and victory; greetings to their courage, heroisms and sacrifices; greetings to those heroes who sacrificed their lives for Egypt. Greetings to our armed forces servicemen, who are always stationed to defend its territory and always stand on the alert to protect its sovereignity and national security.

Greetings to a great generation of the people of Egypt, who survived the years of defeat, endured its shock and suffering, maintained the cohesion of the domestic front and stood out side by side with its armed forces. Greetings to those heroic civilian martyrs from that generation, who fell down while building for our army the missile wall and missile launching pads. Greetings to the October generation, to their steadfastness and unwavering resolve. Greetings to the memory of president Anwar as-Sadat, who invoked his courage from that of this generation and this people. In confidence in Allah, the people, armed forces, he made the war decision, thus restoring Egypt's territory and sovereignity and opening the road to peace.

The anniversary of the crossing and victory will ever remain a point of departure in our cotemporary history, wherefrom we learn lessons and derive more resolve and confidence. Poring into the lessons of years of defeat, we grow more determined never to allow them to recur and more insistent to keep our armed forces ever powerful and advanced and ever remain, in terms of training and equipment, a shield to the homeland that deters aggression and protects peace.

Poring into the connotations of the war of attrition and cross-over from defeat to victory, we grow two-fold self-confident and more resoled to pursue our course, to hit our targets and goals and overcome challenges facing us.

We have achieved much on the road. We have been and are still staging a ferocious battle against the perils of terrorism and extremism. We have always maintained peace and have never been drifted away by its threats. We have gone a long way in re-building a worn-out infrastructure; we have achieved many gains in different production and services sites; exerting our utmost to maintain the stability of the homeland within a region that lacks stability.

Thirty-four years after the October victory, we are now passing through an important juncture of the course of the homeland, with new priorities, aspirations and challenges ahead. Our priorities now are to sustain development efforts and reduce poverty; and our key challenge to create more job opportunities and maintain high and sustained investment, growth and employment rates. It is now our major pre-occupation to balance wages and prices, reduce inflation rate and improve services offered to citizens so as to reflect the economic growth already achieved on their day-to-day life and standard of living.

We look forward to enhancing participation in our partisan and political life; to a societal awareness that recognized the close relationship between freedom and responsibility; between rights and obligations , so that our democratic experiment would not be made vulnerable to setback or, God forbid, driven to a dead end. We are forging our way at the current stage with resolve and confidence.

We mean that the October victory was not made overnight, but it had required six years of strenuous efforts for re-building our armed forces and crossing over from defeat to victory. We know that we will realize our ambitions and priorities overnight, but we also recognize that we are on the right track and we are drawing closer day after day and year after year to our targets.

We give no heed to skeptic, desperate and frustrating claims. There have been indeed people who questioned the capacity of our people to restore Sinai and put an end to occupation.

In Israel, there have been people who claimed that Egypt's army had turned into a forever- still corpse and there have been some from among us who questioned the capacity of our sons to cross the Canal and make the victory.

We will forge our way at the current stage with resolve and confidence; invoking from the October victory more confidence; realizing the aspirations of our people and overcoming the challenges facing us.

We will continue to keep high Egypt's banner; to maintain its sovereignity, stability and independent will; to defend the causes of our nation and work for the peace, security and stability of our region.

May Allah bestow His Mercy upon our martyrs, keep Egypt as an invulnerable homeland, where we live in dignity and a self-proud people that follows its course and seeks welfare for all.