WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump used a White House meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to criticize both his immediate predecessors' military strategies in the country.
"Perhaps we shouldn't have gone in, but certainly we shouldn't have left; we never, ever should have left and the vacuum was created," Trump said Monday during a photo session with al-Abadi.
Trump made public comments in support of President George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq, then later said he opposed the military operation. He criticized President Barack Obama's withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq after the two countries failed to reach an agreement to continue U.S. troops' immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
Al-Abadi, the first Arab head of government to meet with Trump since he took office, is in Washington as the U.S. convenes a summit with 68 nations fighting the Islamic State.
Trump praised the "very tough job" Iraqi soldiers are performing as they battle to retake control of Mosul from the terrorist organization.
Trump planned to talk with al-Abadi about ways to intensify the fight against the Islamic State and relations with Iran, a White House official said.
Al-Abadi's regime, dominated by the same Muslim Shiite sect as governs Iran, maintains a close relationship with the Iranian government and Iranian fighters are assisting the Iraqi government in the campaign against the Islamic State.
Trump has taken a more combative stance toward Iran. Days after the administration took over, then-Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn public declared the U.S. government was "officially putting Iran on notice."
Trump's ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of several mostly Muslim nations initially provoked a political uproar in Iraq but the controversy there subsided when the administration dropped Iraq from the nations covered in a revised order. In dropping Iraq from the list of nations subject to a 90-day ban on entry to the U.S., the Trump administration officials cited assurances on the quality of information for vetting Iraqis as well as the military cooperation between the U.S. and Iraq.
