Iraq’s Abadi says he wins Trump’s assurances of more US support

İstanbul, Mar 23 (DHA) – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he won assurances of greater U.S. support in fighting the IS militants in talks on Monday with U.S. President Donald Trump and top advisers, but cautioned that military might alone would not be sufficient.
Abadi’s remarks followed his first face-to-face meeting at the White House with Trump, who took office on Jan. 20 pledging a new strategy to defeat the hardline militant group that seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Even before Trump took office, Iraqi forces recaptured a string of major cities from IS, shrank the militant group’s finances and significantly stemmed the flow of foreign fighters, all with the support of U.S.-led coalition air strikes and military advisers.
Abadi said Trump appeared more enthusiastic about battling Islamist extremists than former President Barack Obama’s administration had been.
Abadi, who leads the Shiite majority government in Baghdad, said it would be crucial to win over the local population in Sunni-dominated Mosul to achieve lasting peace.
A White House statement about the meeting said both Trump and Abadi agreed that “terrorism cannot be defeated by military might alone” and the two leaders called for deepening commercial ties, including in the energy sector.
At the forum, Abadi called for more financial contributions from the international community.
“We [would] love to see more funds so that we can quickly [regain] prosperity and stabilization in these areas” he said.