Sharaf served with distinction at the
Ministry for Foreign Affairs for nearly four decades, from the early Fifties to the mid-Eighties, witnessing much of Egypt's diplomatic, political and military turmoil. In 1948, he sat for and passed the Egyptian
Diplomatic Corps examinations held at
Alexandria, then summer seat of the Government of H.M.
King Farouk. Ambassador of Egypt to the
People's Republic of China (1982–1985), Ambassador of Egypt to the
Kingdom of Sweden (1979–1982);
Deputy Chief of Mission of the
Sultanate of Oman to the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan (1974–1977);
Consul General of the
United Arab Republic (UAR) at
Hong Kong (1966–1971); Deputy Representative of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the
Middle East (1962–1966). Prior to that, he was First Secretary of the permanent Mission of the United Arab Republic to the United Nations at
New York City (1957–1960), Second Secretary of the
Embassy of Egypt at
Ankara (1954–1956), Third secretary of the Embassy of Egypt at
Bucharest (1953–1954), and Third Secretary of the
Legation of the
Kingdom of Egypt at
Moscow (1951–1953). He was a proficient linguist, and considered one of the Egyptian foreign ministry's foremost experts on Asian affairs and a
Sinologist. Sharaf was promoted to the rank of Ambassador in 1977. He was promoted again to the category of Ambassador Par Excellence in December 1983. During his career he was the recipient of the
Order of the Republic, Second Class, Egypt, February 1973, the
Order of Merit, First Class, Egypt, August 1977, At the time, Sharaf was among a handful of Egyptian senior officials at the League's extensive headquarters in Cairo's
Tahrir square, the League, and most of its specialized agencies having been moved out of Cairo to
Tunis. The move was a consequence of the decisions and decrees taken at the second
Baghdad summit of March 1979 that expelled Egypt from the Arab League, and boycotted and imposed sanctions on it over its peace accords with Israel. His few noted achievements at the League were administrative, succeeding with the assistance of his friend and colleague ambassador Dr.
Osama El-Baz in securing from President
Hosni Mubarak approval for the restructuring of pay scales for Egyptians working at the league, equating them to their Arab counterparts.
Ambassador to China Sharaf was appointed to the
People's Republic of China in 1982, becoming the seventh Egyptian diplomat to assume the post since the establishment of diplomatic relation between the two countries in 1956. He assumed his new position in September 1982, He established a working relationship with
Chinese Communist Party leaders, including paramount leader
Deng Xiaoping, and Premier and
General Secretary of the Communist Party Zhao Ziyang, which successfully resulted in several important bilateral visits including that by Zhao Ziyang to Cairo in December 1982. During this visit many international, regional and bilateral issues were discussed amongst them was the
Middle East Peace Process. His rapport and contacts in both Cairo and Beijing enabled him to arrange for the first visit ever by an Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to the People's Republic of China, in April 1983. Sharaf was quoted in the press expounding the development of Egyptian–Chinese bilateral relations, emphasizing the importance of Mubarak's visit, the nature of the consultations the president would hold with his Chinese counterpart, and the various issues to be discussed. Sharaf also pointed out to the press China's keen and growing interest in peace and stability in the Middle East, the Far East and the globe. As this was the first visit of an Egyptian president to China, several treaties,
protocols and memoranda of understanding (MOU) were signed between the two countries in various fields including agriculture, industry, technical and military cooperation. Also concluded was a
MOU on the establishment of an Egyptian
consulate in
Shanghai, considered necessary for bolstering bilateral trade. Sharaf also assisted in securing an agreement from China, where the latter would finance and build the Friendship and Culture Palace, later renamed the Cairo International Convention & Exhibition Centre (CICC). President Mubarak had earlier approved a land site of 15 acres in the Cairo suburb of
Nasr City for the project. The cost of the CICC was estimated to be about 200 million Swiss francs, and China agreed to present it as a gift to the people of Egypt. It was also during this presidential visit to Beijing that Mubarak held informal talks with the former U.S. Secretary of State
Henry Kissinger, who was visiting China at the time. Sharaf received an important visit by the Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and Military Production Field Marshal
Mohamed Abd al-Halim Abu Ghazala in September 1983. As a result of this visit, and in his capacity as ambassador to China, Sharaf was requested the following year to name and hoist the
Egyptian flag on the 1586 Ton Chinese built Jianghu-1 class
Type 053 frigate Najim al Zafir (951). This was an unusual request and a rare honor for an Egyptian Diplomat, let alone a civilian. The flag hoisting ceremony took place on 20 July 1984, at the Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai China, and after completing her
shakedown cruise in Chinese waters, Al Zafir set sail for Egypt where she was commissioned and entered service with the
Egyptian Navy in late October 1984. Sharaf also received in Beijing in 1984, his friend and mentor Dr.
Boutros Boutros Ghali, later
Secretary General of the United Nations, in the latter's capacity as Egypt's then Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Sharaf would arrange for Ghali to discuss several issues of importance with his Chinese hosts including the Middle East peace process, Egypt's activities in the
Non Aligned Movement, the ongoing
Iran–Iraq War, as well as a number of bilateral issues.
Ambassador to Sweden As director of the Asian department at the MFA, Sharaf expected an appointment to the available post of ambassador of Egypt to the People's Republic of China, and was surprised, as were others, when he was appointed as ambassador to the Kingdom of
Sweden in 1979. This decision had been made without prior consultation, which was not the norm for senior diplomats, by Egypt's then Prime Minister and acting Foreign Minister
Mustafa Khalil. Sharaf presented his credentials to H.M. King
Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden on 13 December 1979. Sharaf's primary mission in Sweden was the promotion of bilateral technical and economic ties, especially trade. To this end, he received then Minister of Electricity and Energy, engineer Maher Abaza. He also received Egypt's then-deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (later Prime Minister)
Kamal Hassan Ali, in
Stockholm. During this visit, Ali presented H.M. King Carl XVI Gustav with a formal invitation from President
Anwar Sadat to visit Egypt. As Egyptian ambassador to Sweden, Sharaf and his wife Noha were active on the diplomatic and social circuit. Noha was successful in establishing a local chapter for the principle Egyptian charity Al Wafa' Wa Amal in Stockholm. The charity, founded and presided at the time by Mrs.
Jehan Sadat, wife of president Sadat, specialized in caring for the poor, the mentally and physically challenged, and the disabled. Mrs. Sadat was keen to learn from ambassador Sharaf and his wife about Sweden's experience and expertise in caring for paraplegics and the disabled. Besides their regular diplomatic activities, the couple hosted and organized bazaars, fundraisers, cultural and musical galas for the benefit of the Egyptian charity. Through her work on behalf of Al Wafa' Wa Amal in Stockholm, Noha. With the assistance of her husband, was able to collect gifts and donations in the form of hospital equipment for the benefit of the charity. On one occasion, she was reported in the Egyptian press to have succeeded in collecting 100 hospital beds and 45 wheelchairs.
Naguib Mahfouz and the Nobel Prize in Literature Sharaf played a minor but important part in the drama that unfolded in Cairo surrounding the initial consideration of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences of
Naguib Mahfouz for the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. Sharaf was quietly and unofficially approached in 1981 by Dr. Attia Amer, Professor of Arabic Literature at
Stockholm University, with a request to forward translations of Mahfouz's work for further study and evaluation by the Swedish Academy. Sharaf acted on the request, only to be rebuffed by Cairo and presented with an alternative candidate, which the academy politely declined as all nominations were its sole prerogative and mandate and did not yield to government pressure. In this context, Sharaf, at the request of the Sultanate, and along with a small hand-picked group of Egyptian diplomats, went on secondment to Oman in 1974 to help establish the Omani
Diplomatic Corps, as well as staff some of its embassies overseas. Sharaf was appointed in 1974 as an Omani diplomat with the rank of
Minister Plenipotentiary and posted as
Deputy Chief of Mission of the newly established embassy of Oman to the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Sharaf would forge an excellent working relationship with his immediate superior, and Oman's first ever ambassador to Pakistan, HRH Prince Shabib bin Taimur Al Said, as well as with Pakistani officials during the presidency of
Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry and the premiership of
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was during his posting to Islamabad that Sharaf met and became a close friend of then Colonel and later Field Marshal
Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, it helped that both men were born in the same upper Egyptian town of Aswan. At the time, Tantawi was serving as Egypt's
Military Attaché in Islamabad. Sharaf would serve in
Islamabad till 1977. His younger brother Ezz El-din would also serve in Islamabad, in the early eighties, as Egypt's ambassador to Pakistan. Regular flights to Hong Kong were added in March 1969, as a
stopover destination to the scheduled flights of the airline on its Cairo to Tokyo route. Sharaf witnessed first-hand, and wrote extensively on the implementation of export-oriented policies, the colony's rise as a regional financial center, and the-then infant industry of
container shipping, with emphasis on the industry's future on world trade and its implications and benefits for the
Suez Canal. At the time, Hong Kong was of particular interest to any
China watcher, as well as for following political and military developments in
South-East Asia and the ongoing war in
Vietnam. In 1967, the Vietnam war had claimed the life of the head of the Egyptian Mission at
Hanoi, Gamal Eldin Omar Ibrahim (1916–1967). Sharaf and Ibrahim were colleagues and friends, and Sharaf was vocal about his friend's untimely death, as well as his opposition to the war in Vietnam. Gamal Eldin Omar, the Egyptian
Charge d'affaires at Hanoi, was wounded seeking shelter from an American air strike on the city. He would die later of complications in a Hong Kong hospital on 6 December 1967. In 1970, Sharaf assumed the position of Doyen of the
Consular Corps in Hong Kong. The position of Doyen would bring Sharaf closer and into regular contact with the
Governor General of the colony. At the time, the Governor General of Hong Kong was Sir
David Trench (1915–1988, and in office from 1964 to 1971), a veteran of the British colonial service. The position of Doyen would also bring Sharaf and his wife Noha closer to the-then director of protocol in Hong Kong, Brigadier Sir Rainald Lewthwaite OBE (1913–2003), aka Ray Lewthwaite, and his American-born wife Margaret Edmonds Lewthwaite (MBE) (1907–1990), aka Peggy Lewthwaite. Ray Lewthwaite, a former British officer who had served in Egypt and North Africa during
World War II, and his wife Margaret would be lifelong friends of the Sharaf's, being house guests at their Beijing embassy residence in the Eighties. The Sharafs were particularly impressed with Margaret, who, besides being a diplomatic hostess, was an accomplished author and painter.
UNHCR Under secondment from the government of the U.A.R, Sharaf was appointed as Deputy Representative of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Middle East (1961–1966). He was involved with providing solutions to the plight of refugees and assistance to internally displaced persons on the African continent, ensuring their protection, well-being and relocation when necessary. The Cairo UNHCR Middle East office was established in 1954, and supervised international humanitarian aid and assistance to a number of African countries including
Algeria,
Rwanda,
Togo and
Angola, among others. As deputy representative of the UNHCR Middle East, he actively assisted in his organization's participation in the first Afro-Asian consultative meeting held at the Arab League in Cairo, in February 1964. His direct superior was
Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who at the time was still deputy
High Commissioner of the UNHCR. Sadruddin Aga Khan was elected High Commissioner of the UNHCR in December 1965. Prior to and upon assuming his new position as High Commissioner, Sadruddin Aga Khan had unsuccessfully lobbied the Egyptian government, from August till December 1965, to have Sharaf continue in his tenure as deputy representative of the UNHCR Middle East.
United Nations Having completed his tour of duty at
Ankara in 1957, Sharaf was posted to the Egyptian mission to the
United Nations at
New York City. At the United Nations, he was an alternate to his colleague Abdel Hamid Abdel-Ghani, on the 14-member country
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Distinguished members on the commission included Judge Philip Halpern of the
United States. In January 1960, the sub-commission unanimously adopted a resolution condemning "Anti-Semitism, Religious and Racial Prejudices", amongst the first to be adopted by a sub-commission at the World Organization. Sharaf attended numerous commission meetings and conferences at the UN dealing with complex legal and human rights issues like
non-refoulement, as well as one on the essential topic of the standardization of geographical names. His colleagues at the United Nations mission included a group of outstanding Egyptian diplomats who would later in their careers assume positions of importance among them was Mohamed Riad, Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
Abdel Raouf El Reedy, long-serving Ambassador to the United States, and Mohamed Shaker, Ambassador to the
United Kingdom. When Sharaf joined the Egyptian mission at New York it was headed by ambassador Omar Loutfi, one of Egypt's most distinguished, accomplished and vocal diplomats. Loutfi was a fervent nationalist who opposed superpower expansion and involvement in the Middle East. He would instill in Sharaf a respect for the importance of upholding international law in an increasingly divided and polarized world. Loutfi would later assume the position of
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Special Political Affairs. Loutfi, a one-time
President of the United Nations Security Council, would die on the premises of the UN building at New York of a heart attack on 17 May 1963. Sharaf was in New York in May 1958 when his younger brother Sami, considered one of President Nasser's most trusted aides, arrived to assist in the resolution of the budding political crisis in Lebanon. Immediately upon his arrival at Idlewild Airport (since renamed JFK International Airport), Sami was approached with an invitation from the-then CIA Director
Allen Dulles to be a guest of the agency while in New York. Sami was again in New York with his elder brother in September 1960, preparing for President Nasser's only visit to U.S. to attend and deliver a speech at the
General Assembly of the United Nations.
Egyptian Soviet Friendship Society In March 1987, attempts were made to thaw and revive
Egyptian–Soviet relations by re-establishing the Egyptian Soviet Friendship Society. Sharaf, with his long experience in eastern bloc countries, was hand-picked by
Boutros Boutros Ghali, then Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, to become secretary of the friendship society. At the time, the society's president was Ghali himself. Prominent Egyptians from diverse fields of interest were invited to join the society. Both men would travel to
Moscow to participate in the society's meetings and gatherings of prominent politicians, diplomats, businessmen, academicians, historians, linguists and enthusiasts of Egyptian Soviet relations. Sharaf's visits to Moscow and his extensive travels in the Soviet hinterland convinced him that the Soviet Union was not the superpower he once knew, he did not, however, predict its sudden collapse.
Politics The Impact of May 1971 Sharaf worked as a diplomat for nearly four decades under both royal and republican political regimes in Egypt. His younger brother Sami would exert influence on the political landscape of Egypt. Sami would eventually assume the position of minister for presidential affairs in the regime of president
Nasser. Sami was one of Nasser's closest and most trusted aides, and considered the second-most powerful man after the president. His political demise came about when he tended his resignation from office in May 1971, after Nasser's death in September 1970, to president
Anwar Sadat. He was put on trial in a "Military Revolutionary Court" and convicted of
High Treason for attempting to overthrow the president. The court initially handed him a death sentence, which was commuted to hard labor for life. In Egypt this would be known as the
Corrective Revolution. Sami's political demise naturally affected the prospects of Sharaf and the clan, including accusations made at them and their cousin, ambassador Essam Hawas. Sadat did not persecute the two elder Sharaf brothers, Omar and Ezz El-din, bestowing on Omar the
Order of the Republic Second Class in February 1973, The tour included visiting
Malaysia,
Singapore,
Bangladesh and
India. Sharaf's extensive knowledge of Asian affairs, his wit and humor made him amenable to Mubarak. Mubarak would later appoint Sharaf as his ambassador to China. == Lifestyle and legacy ==