Al-Zubaydi was a frequent fixture beside Saddam Hussein on television screens across the world and was present at several high-level meetings between Saddam and foreign dignitaries during the Iran–Iraq War, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the 1991 Gulf War and the months preceding the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. A low-ranking Iraqi Ba'ath Party member, al-Zubaydi was witness to some of Saddam's most crucial talks, including a controversial July 25, 1990 meeting between Saddam and then-U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie, just days prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. He also translated Saddam's widely broadcast remarks during the Iraqi President's August 23, 1990 meeting with Western hostages to whom Iraq had refused exit visas as the crisis in the Persian Gulf emerged. During those remarks, al-Zubaydi can be heard famously asking if a young British boy named Stuart Lockwood is getting his milk while Saddam ruffles the young boy's hair.