Arabic: عمر سليمان Born: Jul. 2, 1936 Omar Suleiman was appointed Vice President of Egypt on January 29, 2011 as a reaction to the 2011 protests. Suleiman stepped down from office two weeks later, on February 11, after announcing the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak. Suleiman has not appeared in public after his resignation. Before the January 25 Revolution, Suleiman was considered a possible candidate for Egypt's next president. Demonstrators were not happy with his appointment as Mubarak's first Vice President, seeing him as another element of the former regime and its corruption. Suleiman was head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (EGIS) from 1993 until 2011, although his position was considered confidential and was not publically known until 2000. Suleiman was known to be a trusted ally of Mubarak. In 1995, when Mubarak traveled to Ethiopia, it was Suleiman who insisted on heavier armor for Mubarak's vehicle and was likely responsible for the former president's survival of an assassination attempt. Suleiman was popular with the United States and Israel, who supported his appointment as Vice President, because of his hard stance against radical Islamists. Suleiman was close to the Mubarak family and would likely have held greater power in public politics, such as a position in the formerly ruling National Democratic Party, if not for his position in the military. Suleiman received a BA in Political Science from Ain Shams University and a Masters in the same field from Cairo University.
