WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday held his first meeting with Iraq’s prime minister as the American leader shapes his policy for defeating the Islamic State group.

With Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at the White House, Trump said Iran is one of the issues his team will discuss with the Iraqi delegation. He took the opportunity to criticize the nuclear deal his predecessor, Barack Obama, pursued with Iran

“One of the things I did ask is, ‘Why did President Obama sign that agreement with Iran?’ because nobody has been able to figure that one out,” Trump said. “But maybe someday we’ll be able to figure that one out.”

Trump said he hopes to address the “vacuum” that was created when the Islamic State group claimed Iraq and added that “we shouldn’t have gone in” to Iraq in the first place.

Speaking after Trump during the bilateral meeting, al-Abadi said Iraq has “the strongest counterterrorism forces, but we are looking forward to more cooperation between us and the U.S.”

Trump campaigned on a promise to dramatically ramp up the assault on Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and has vowed to eradicate “radical Islamic terrorism.” So far, he has not indicated a dramatic change of course. Like Obama, Trump has not suggested sharp increases in troop levels or in airstrikes against militant targets.

Meanwhile Monday in Iraq, a suicide car bombing killed at least 23 people and wounded 45 others, according to Iraqi officials. The attack targeted a commercial area in Baghdad’s southwestern Amil neighborhood.

$75 million pledged to protect heritage sites in war zones

PARIS — World donors pledged more than $75 million Monday to a historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants.

French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a donors’ conference in Paris’ Louvre museum, passionately called on more countries to contribute to the newly created heritage alliance and help push it past its “ambitious” $100 million goal.

“At Bamiyan, Mosul, Palmyra, Timbuktu and elsewhere, fanatics have engaged in trafficking, looting and the destruction of cultural heritage, adding to the persecution of populations,” Hollande said.

A number of cultural artifacts and heritage sites have fallen victim to the Islamic State group.

U.N. chief calls for Haiti peacekeeping mission to end

UNITED NATIONS — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is recommending that the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti wrap up with the departure of all 2,370 military personnel by Oct. 15.

The U.N. chief said a smaller peacekeeping operation should be established to continue to support police training, political stability, good governance, electoral reform, the rule of law and human rights in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

He recommended in a report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Monday by The Associated Press that the new mission include about 1,275 police, down from the current 2,541.

Also Monday, Uruguay announced it will soon pull its soldiers out of the United Nations stabilization mission in Haiti.

Most electronics being banned on certain U.S.-bound flights

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is temporarily barring passengers on certain flights originating in eight other countries from bringing laptops, iPads, cameras and most other electronics in carry-on luggage starting Tuesday.

The reason was not immediately clear. U.S. security officials would not comment. The ban was revealed Monday in statements from Royal Jordanian Airlines and the official news agency of Saudi Arabia.

A U.S. official said the ban will apply to nonstop flights to the U.S. from 10 airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Ivanka Trump gets office in the West Wing

WASHINGTON — Cementing her role as a powerful White House influence, Ivanka Trump is working out of a West Wing office and will get access to classified information, though she is not technically serving as a government employee, according to an attorney for the first daughter.

Since President Donald Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been a visible presence in the White House. On Friday, she participated in a meeting on vocational training with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Jamie Gorelick, an attorney and ethics adviser for Ivanka Trump, said Monday that the first daughter will not have an official title but will get a West Wing office, government-issued communications devices and security clearance to access classified information.

N. Korea says it’s not afraid of threat of military strike

TOKYO — North Korea said Monday it is not frightened by U.S. threats of possible pre-emptive military action to halt its nuclear and missile buildup.

A spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry slammed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent talk of tougher sanctions, more pressure and possible military action, and said the North would not be deterred in its nuclear program.

“The nuclear force of (North Korea) is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people,” the official Korean Central News Agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

Tillerson recently visited Japan, South Korea and China on a trip that focused on North Korea’s nuclear program.

No appeal: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez’s appeal of his corruption indictment, setting the stage for a federal trial in the fall. Justices let stand a lower court ruling that refused to dismiss charges against the Democratic lawmaker.

Colo. residents return: Hundreds of residents were allowed to return to their homes in the foothills just outside Boulder, Colo., Monday as firefighters made progress against a wildfire possibly sparked by transient campers in the area. The fire spread to about 70 acres, but firefighters were close to fully containing it Monday.