Zebari was born to a
Kurdish Iraqi family in
Aqrah, a city in
Duhok Governorate, and grew up in
Mosul. Zebari joined the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 1979. In the 1980s, he fought as a member of the
Peshmerga in the
Iraqi–Kurdish conflict against the government of
Saddam Hussein. He went on to become a member of the KDP's Central Committee and its Political Bureau. In 1988, he was put in charge of its foreign relations and represented the party in the
United States and the UK. In 1992, he was appointed a member of the executive committee of the
Iraqi National Congress and was made part of its Presidential Council in 1999. After the
2003 invasion of Iraq, Zebari was appointed a member of the
Iraqi Governing Council. He was made foreign minister in September 2003. In July 2012, he said that
al-Qaeda in Iraq members had gone to Syria, where the militants previously received support and weapons. On 11 July 2014, Zebari was replaced as foreign minister by
Hussain al-Shahristani, Iraq's deputy prime minister, who assumed the position in an acting capacity after Kurdish politicians withdrew from the government of
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. On 8 September 2014, he was appointed a Deputy Prime Minister under the government of the new premier,
Haider al-Abadi. On 18 October 2014, Zebari was given the post of
Minister of Finance of Iraq, while
Rowsch Shaways was appointed the new Deputy Prime Minister in his place. On 21 September 2016, he was dismissed from his position as finance minister after losing a
no-confidence motion over allegations of corruption. In October 2017, Iraqi politicians and officials called on the government to investigate Zebari for
nepotism after it was revealed that he had appointed his wife and seven of her family members to Iraqi embassies in various
European countries. Zebari tried to participate as a candidate in the presidential elections in 2022, but was banned by the
Federal Supreme Court of Iraq over allegations of corruption against him dating back to 2016. He protested the decision, stating that no court had convicted him. ==Personal life==