AFP, BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi asked US President Donald Trump in a phone call to remove his country from a contentious travel ban list, a statement said on Friday.
Iraq is one of seven Muslim-majority countries whose citizens are barred from entering the United States for 90 days under an executive order the newly sworn in US president signed on January 27.
The ban was suspended by a lower court a week later and a federal appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate it but Trump vowed to continue the legal battle for his order to stand.
“The prime minister stressed the importance of a review of the decision on the right of Iraqis to travel to the United States,” Abadi’s office said in a statement after the phone call.
Abadi urged Trump to “lift Iraq from the list of countries mentioned in the executive order,” the statement said.