 Complete the following phrase:  Weir went on a state scholarship to study oriental languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies in 1942. A year later he joined the Royal Air Force, which sent him to London University to learn Persian. He was then posted as an intelligence officer, including to Burma and Iraq. After demobilisation in 1947, he went to Balliol College, Oxford. He joined the Foreign Service in 1950, and quickly became one of its leading Arabists. His early postings included Bahrain, Doha and Sharjah. Weirs career culminated with his appointment as the United Kingdoms ambassador to Egypt 19791985. In 1981, he was sitting behind Egyptian President Anwar Sadat when the president was 