Gesprek : Iraakse minister voor Buitenlandse Zaken Zebari

Mr. Zebari was born in 1953 in Aqra, Iraqi Kurdistan, and educated in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the University of Jordan, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, and the University of Essex in the UK, obtaining a Master of Arts in Sociology of Development.

Mr. Zebari was responsible for the Kurdish Student Society in Europe and Chairman of the Overseas Student Committee in the UK between 1978 and 1980 and in 1979 he was elected to the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s Leadership (Central Committee). Mr. Zebari participated in the armed national resistance campaign against the regime of Saddam from 1980 -1988 and became an elected member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Political Bureau and Chief Representative of the Kurdistan Front in Europe in 1989. Mr. Zebari held the post of the KDP’s Chief Foreign Representative from 1988-1991 and acted as a spokesman during the 1991 Gulf War. Following the Gulf War, he liaised with the coalitions’ Operation Provide Comfort and Military Coordinating Centre in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan, until 1995.

Mr. Zebari became Head of KDP’s International Relations Bureau in 1992, a position he held until his most recent appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, during which time he carried out public diplomacy, media outreach and organized conferences for the Iraqi opposition. He also became an elected member of the Kurdistani National Assembly in 1992 - date. In 1994 Mr. Zebari became the principal negotiator in the Kurdish peace process and participated in peace talks held in Paris, Ireland, Ankara, London and Washington which produced the 1998 Washington Peace Agreement between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Mr. Zebari was elected to the Executive Council of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) in 1992 and became Head of International Relations of the Iraqi Opposition. He was elected as a member of the INC Leadership Council in 1999 and in 2002 he became a member of the Iraqi Opposition Coordination and Follow-Up Committee. Mr. Zebari has been responsible for outreach and public diplomacy in the USA, Europe, Arab countries and Iraq's neighbouring countries over many years.

His Excellency Mr. Hoshyar Zibari was first appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Iraqi Governing Council in Baghdad on September 3rd 2003. On June 28/2004, he was reappointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs by the Iraqi Interim Government (I.I.G) under Prime Minister Dr. Ayad Allawi. On May 3rd ,2005 he was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs by the Iraqi Transitional Government (I.T. G.) under Prime Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Ja’afari.

On May 20th , 2006 ,he sworn in for the fourth consecutive time as Foreign Minister in the government of Mr.Nouri Kamil Al-Maliki which is the first constitutional governmenet since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime

On Dec 21th , 2010 ,he sworn in for the fifth consecutive time as Foreign Minister in the government of Mr.Nouri Kamil Al-Maliki which is the second constitutional government.