Story highlights Trump offered little clarity to Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani about his long-term view on stabilizing the country

There are currently 8,400 US troops serving in Afghanistan as part of the NATO mission

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump phoned the leaders of Iraq and Afghanistan on Thursday, but even amid their discussions about combating terrorists, his contentious immigration executive order remained a sticking point.

Trump, who is now three weeks into his role as commander in chief, intended during the calls to make initial assessments of the men who have sometimes proved to be nettlesome partners to the US in its ongoing mission to rid their countries of militants.

However, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi used a portion of his half-hour conversation to insist Trump remove Iraq from a list of seven countries whose citizens he's tried to temporarily ban from entering the United States.

Trump told Abadi he would direct the US State Department toward finding a solution, according to an official description of the phone call from Baghdad, but didn't promise to remove Iraq from the list.

Along with Iraq, Trump's executive order barred citizens from Syria, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Yemen, and Somalia from entering the US for 90 days. The order is in legal limbo; a judge issued a temporary halt on the order and visa-holders from those nations have been able to board US-bound planes while the matter moves through courts.

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