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
assassination
Assassination of Rafic Hariri
Farouk al-Sharaa