The 'Vicar of Baghdad', Canon Andrew White, has praised President Donald Trump and said there are 'positive signs' for the Christians of the Middle East.

In a YouTube video entitled Why I Like Donald Trump, White, who ministered at St George's Church in Baghdad during the horrendous violence that followed the American-led invasion, says: 'The world has got to get to grips with the fact that there is a new president and that actually there is hope with this president and there is very much hope for the persecuted Christians in the region.'

He notes that Trump's new executive order restricting immigration from several Muslim-majority countries – issued after the ignominious failure of a previous attempt – now does not include Iraq.

'It's very interesting that even though President Trump had said no Iraqis were allowed into America it now looks as if he is going back on this issue,' he says, suggesting Trump 'acnowledges how much the Iraqis did in the combat of 2003 and how closely the Americans and the Iraqis were working together.'

Unlike the previous failed exective order, however, the new order does not prioritise Christian refugees.

White was forced to leave Baghdad in 2014 after threats to his life from Islamic State and now ministers in Amman, Jordan. He says he is planning to meet members of the Trump administration when he travels to the US the week after next.