Abadi arrives in Washington for meeting with Trump

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Washington early Monday in a visit made as per an official invitation from President Donald Trump.

The Iraqi government said in a statement that the prime minister flew late Sunday and arrived Monday to the U.S. where he meets, besides Trump, with several U.S. Administration officials and Congress members.

The statement said the meetings will focus on cooperation in security, military, economic and other fields.

Abadi is also scheduled to attend a meeting by the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State.

The U.S. coalition has backed the Iraqi government in its five-month-old campaign against Islamic State militants in Mosul and other provinces. Inaugurated as a U.S. president in January, Trump has stressed that faster elimination of Islamic State’s threat was top priority for his administration.

The two countries adhere to a joint agreement signed in 2008 that regulates military, political and economic relations between both, and which led to the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011.

Earlier this month, Iraq welcomed Trump’s decision to exclude Iraqi from a revised executive order that barred entry to the United States to six Muslim-majority countries as a protection against terrorist threats.