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. Early life and education Sharaa was born in Daraa on 10 December 1938 to a Sunni Muslim family that originates from the Daraa Governorate. He studied English language at the University of Damascus in the 1960s, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1963. In 1971 and 1972 he took courses in international law at the University of London. Early career In 1963, Sharaa became a member of the Ba'ath Party’s central committee. He served as regional manager of the state-run Syrian Arab Airlines in London from 1968 to 1972 and as commercial director in Damascus from 1972 to 1976. Between 1977 and 1980, he served as Syria's ambassador to Italy. In 1980 he was named deputy foreign minister. In 1984 Sharaa was appointed acting minister of information. In March 1984, Hafez al-Assad, then president of Syria, named him Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position that he held until February 2006. 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 of the Golan Heights, 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. 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 international investigators in letters about the investigation of possible Syrian involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Along with President Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa was interviewed in April 2006 during the course of a UN investigation into the death in February 2005 of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He finally did leave his post as foreign minister on 11 February