Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi isn’t hesitating to flash his sense of humor when it comes to talking about President Trump and his policies.
Abadi is meeting with President Trump and administration officials as a U.S.-led coalition fights through the final stages of driving ISIS out of Iraq. The visit comes in the run-up to an international ministerial at the State Department, in which international leaders of the coalition will discuss the endgame for destroying ISIS as a land-holding terrorists group in Iraq and Syria. That military victory will leave Abadi with the task of integrating communities that suffered under ISIS, after being alienated by the previous Iraqi government, back into the nation.
When asked if he would support the ethnic minorities that live in territory liberated from ISIS to form a “semi-autonomous” regional government, Abadi demurred — with a crack at Trump.
“We should be inclusive,” he said while addressing the U.S. Institute of Peace. “But I don’t think you protect yourself by having a partition from your neighbors. I think this is a tough one, it has to be looked at thoroughly. We have to build bridges with others and to work with others to be more secure.”
“Otherwise, what do you do?” Abadi continued, with a chuckle. “You build walls? What do you do?”
That apparent reference to Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico followed another jab the president’s claim that the Obama administration ordered a wiretap of Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. “We had nothing to do with the wiretap,” Abadi told Trump after a reporter asked the president about the story.
