Farouk al-Sharaa

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Farouk al-Sharaa bigraphy, stories - Syrian politician

Farouk al-Sharaa : biography

10 December 1938 –

Farouk al-Sharaa ( born 10 December 1938) is a Syrian politician and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent officials in the Syrian government and served as foreign minister of Syria from 1984 until 2006 when he became Vice President of Syria.

Political career

Since Hafez Assad’s death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad reshuffled his cabinet several times to remove several 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 might be forced to resign when, in October 2005, he was accused of misleading the international investigators in letters about the investigation of possible Syrian involvement in the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. 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 Hariri.

Sharaa met with Pope Benedict XVI in September 2007 to discuss the plight of Iraqi Christian refugees in Syria, the Mideast peace processes, and the role and status of the Church in Syria. Sharaa is Chairman of the “national dialogue” committee in Syria.

Early career

Between 1976 and 1980, al-Sharaa served as Syria’s diplomat in Italy, and in 1980 he was named deputy foreign minister. In 1984 al-Sharaa was apponited acting minister of informations. In March 1984, Hafez al-Assad, at the time president of Syria, named him foreign minister, a position that he will hold until February 2006.

Reports of escape

Following his absence at a high-level meeting in July 2012, Sharaa was rumored to either be under house-arrest, or to have fled to Jordan. These reports came amidst a wave of Fugitives from the Assad government after an increase in violence in the Syrian civil war. However, these reports were proven to be false, since Sharaa represented Bashar al-Assad at the funerals of three senior officials assassinated on 18 July 2012 in Damascus.

In mid-August the spokesperson of the Free Syrian Army announced that al-Sharaa had fled to Jordan. A spokesman for al-Sharaa denied this report to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). On 26 August 2012, al-Sharaa appeared in public in Syria for a second time, disproving false reports that he had fled to Jordan.

Old guard of the Assad government

Sharaa has remained an old guard of the Assad administration. 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.

Early life and education

Sharaa was born in Damascus to a Sunni Muslim family that originates from the Daraa Governorate. Al-Sharaa studied English at the University of Damascus in the 1960s and in 1972 he took courses in international law at the University of London, also he soon earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.