Iraq asks US to ‘reconsider’ controversial Muslim ban

Iraq asked the United States to reconsider the travel ban on its citizens today, taking a more diplomatic line than the Iraqi parliament and other Shia clerics who demanded the government retaliate.

“It is necessary that the new American administration reconsider this wrong decision,” the foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of a meeting between Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jafari and US Ambassador Douglas Silliman to discuss the ban.

“No Iraqi has been involved in terror attacks in the US,” Al-Jafari told the ambassador, the minister’s website said. Al-Jafari neglected to mention that the leader of the Daesh extremist organisation, Ibrahim Al-Samarrai, better known by his nom de guerre of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, is an Iraqi.

Daesh has conducted several terrorist attacks in the United States, possibly even planned from Iraq.

The United States gives financial assistance to Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi’s government and provides critical air and ground support to Iraqi troops fighting Daesh militants who overran a third of Iraq in 2014. Almost 6,000 US troops are deployed in Iraq.

The foreign ministry statement said: “We affirm Iraq’s desire to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.”

President Donald Trump on Friday temporarily banned US entry for people from seven Muslim-majority countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – and halted the admission of refugees.

Earlier on Monday, the Iraqi parliament called on the government to impose “similar treatment” on US nationals.