Ibrahim Abd al-Karim al-Eshaiker (Arabic: إبراهيم عبد الكريم الأشيقر; born 25 March 1947), also known as Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq in the Iraqi Transitional Government from 2005 to 2006, following the January 2005 election. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2018.

He was one of the two Vice Presidents of Iraq under the Iraqi Interim Government from 2004 to 2005, and he was the main spokesman for the Islamic Dawa Party. He withdrew his nomination for premiership for the permanent government.

He was born in Karbala to Abd al-Karim al-Eshaiker and Rahmah al-Eshaiker on March 25, 1947.^[1][2] He hails from the noble Al Zheek family that claims descent from Ibrahim al-Asghar bin Musa al-Kadhim, the seventh Shia Imam. The family settled in Karbala in the early 11th-century. His great-grandfather, Mahdi bin Ali bin Baqir al-Eshaiker, led the al-Eshaiker revolt in Karbala in 1876 against the Ottoman Empire.^[3]

al-Jaafari was educated at Mosul university as a medical doctor.^[4] He moved with his family to Iran where he lived and worked with the Islamic Revolution Council of Iraq, an Iran backed Iraqi opposition until 1989. He then moved to London where he continued his political activities by eventually heading the Dawa Islamic Party.

He joined the Islamic Dawa Party in 1968. Upon graduation from school in 1974 he worked actively for the party in Iraq which was trying to overthrow the Ba'athist secular government. He left for Iran in 1980 and became involved in the movement against Saddam Hussein there as part of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq where he represented the Islamic Dawa Party. He adopted the name al-Jaafari in exile to protect his family in Iraq from retribution by Saddam. He moved to London in 1989 where he became the al-Dawa spokesman in the UK and an important participant in the wider anti-Saddam movement. While in the UK he attended many Iraqi Events giving religious sermons.^[4]

He opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq but returned to Iraq soon after.^[5] He was picked in July 2003 as member of the U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council, and served as its first chairman and Iraq's first post-Saddam interim President for one month. On 1 June 2004, he was selected to be one of the two vice-presidents in the Iraqi Interim Government.^[4]

He brought al-Dawa into the United Iraqi Alliance coalition of Shi'ite parties and was second on the party's list after SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.^[4]

In May 2008, al-Jaafari launched a new political party called the National Reform Trend.^[12] He was formally expelled from the Dawa party as a consequence, and his new party was widely seen as a vehicle for an attempt at regaining power.^[13]

He was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs by newly-elect Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on 8 September 2014.^[14]

In February 2018, al-Jaafari condemned the Turkish invasion of northern Syria aimed at ousting U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds from the enclave of Afrin. He stated: "We reject any foreign nation from intervening in the affairs of another country."^[15]

• List of foreign ministers in 2017