Farouk al-Sharaa
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Farouk al-Sharaa, also known as Farouq al-Sharaa (born 1938) is a Syrian politician and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent officials in the Assad regime and served as foreign minister of Syria from 1984 until 2006 when he became vice-president of Syria. Sharaa still holds the office of vice-president of Syria.
Sharaa was born in Syria. As a young man he studied English, receiving a B.A. He then worked for Syrian Air Lines for over a decade, much of which time he lived in Europe. During the 1970s he became an active member of the Ba'ath Party and was accepted as a diplomat. He served as Syria's ambassador to Italy from 1976 to 1980, as deputy foreign minister from 1980 to 1984, and became foreign minister in March 1984. Meanwhile he rose through the ranks of the Ba'ath Party, serving on its central committee. He also became a deputy prime minister of Syria.
Sharaa has remained a trusted ally of the Assad regime. He has been very active in negotiating with many countries to gain better relations for Syria. Much of this negotiation has involved Syria's relationships with Lebanon and Israel. Sharaa maintains that Israel should give back all the territory it took from Syria in the 1967 war. He was involved in two attempts to negotiate a reconciliation with Israel in 1991 and 2000.
Since Hafez Assad's death in 2000, his son Bashar Assad has reshuffled his cabinet several times to get rid of many of its long-time members. Sharaa, however, remained in office, and became one of the longest-serving foreign ministers in the world. It was believed that Sharaa may be forced to resign when In October 2005, he was accused of lying to international investigators in letters about the investigation of possible Syrian involvement in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. This scandal led to the suicide of interior minister Ghazi Kanaan but Sharaa kept his post. He finally did leave his post as foreign minister on February 11, 2006, when he became vice-president of Syria. This position had been vacant for months, since the departure of Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who also served as foreign minister for a long time before becoming vice-president. Some saw his appointment as vice-president as a demotion, since he was expected to have less of a public role in Syrian politics and to lose contact with many diplomats and world leaders. The vice-president in Syria is generally a ceremonial role. However, others believed that Sharaa would now have a greater role in decision-making, since he would be in Syria more often. In the event, Sharaa engaged in high-profile foreign travel as Vice President, indicating that his role is envisaged as an active one on the international scene. Sharaa will also become the acting president of Syria if President Assad resigns or dies while Sharaa is still vice-president.
Along with President Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa was interviewed in April, 2006 in the course of a UN investigation into the death in February 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri.
