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The Trump administration is stressing that America is out of the nation-building enterprise as it crafts its policy toward the Middle East. However, as the Islamic State is territorially defeated within Iraq, the future stability of the country rests on how effectively the Iraqi governmentwith U.S. and international assistancecan reconstruct and reintegrate the previously alienated Sunni population. Many areas will require concentrated focus, including security, governance, economic stabilization and infrastructure. Unfortunately, there is one overlooked issue that will determine the long-term security of the country: the status of its public-health system. If Iraq fails to address health security in the areas liberated from the Islamic State, then the country may once again plunge into chaos, making all of the military gains in vain.

Need to Address Public-Health System

Rebuilding the public-health and health-care-delivery systems must not be dismissed as a secondary focus as conditions in former Islamic Stateheld territories, and much of the Middle East indicate an incipient vulnerability to an epidemic. The entire region is plagued by preventable diseases, displaced persons and low-state expenditures on health care. An Ebola-esque outbreak spreading across the Middle East is not unrealistic.

An epidemic would stress Iraq to the breaking point; anything short of an immediate coordinated response by the Iraqi government under the current environment of sectarianism would reignite feelings of alienation and neglect. If the Iraqi government is unwillingor unableto provide the needed services, other groups will step in to fill that void. Terrorist organizations and non-state actors alike have utilized the provision of social services, including health care, to bolster their own legitimacy amongst the populace.

Risk of Epidemic

Mosul is in ruin. The citys infrastructure has been destroyed by conflict-and-maintenance neglect alike under the Islamic State. Hospitals and schools are destroyed, houses are riddled with improvised explosive devices, the inhabitants are starving, vulnerable and displaced. Though the Islamic State claimed to provide Muslims with extensive healthcare by running a host of medical facilities including hospitals and clinics in all major cities, the health situation under the Islamic State was nonexistent for most inhabitants. Prevented from appropriate access to health care, children are undernourished, anemic and lack necessary vaccines. Chronic conditions plague adults who havent had access to treatment for years. The Iraqi Government, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Health Organization and other international organizations are providing health services to these liberated Iraqisbut these are only short-term fixes as health infrastructure must be rebuilt to inculcate long-term health security.

Iraqs endemic-cholera problem showcases the inability of its health infrastructure to mitigate the risk of an easily preventable disease. The most recent outbreak in 2015 was fueled by many of the same causes of concerns that still exist, particularly the large numbers of internally displaced persons and refugees living under unsanitary conditions. Though the Iraqi Ministry of Healthalong with the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund and World Health Organizationwas able to stop the outbreak through an oral-vaccination campaign, it failed to address the precursors that lead to the outbreak in the first place.

Iraq finds itself wedged up against a failed state in Syria, which has seen its health-care system depleted over the course of an intractable civil war. More importantly, the targeting of health personnel and services in Syrian cities by a myriad of actors has left essential welfare services nonexistent. With no end in sight, Syrian instability will cross the border into Iraq in the form of refugees, terrorists and diseases. Iraq does not have the infrastructure to prevent an epidemic though it may be able to contain one with international assistance. Yet the areas most destroyed and susceptible to an outbreak are the areas that were alienated by the central government prior to the rise of the Islamic State. If an outbreak does occur, these feelings of alienation will resurface.

Current Reconstruction

Facing a variety of looming issues, the Iraqi central government has limited support for reforming the countrys public-health system. Additionally, as a long-term project, political infighting will derail efforts along the way. With the immense cost of the Islamic State campaign and the plunge of global oil prices in 2014, the Iraqi government cannot foot the bill for the billions of dollars it will cost to rebuild Mosul, leaving it to the international community, which historically has suffered from donor fatigue following a conflict.

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Keeping ISIS On the Retreat in Iraq Will Depend on Health Care - The National Interest Online

The Jerusalem Post

Hezbollah commander's death in Iraq overshadows Mideast, Israel The Jerusalem Post On Friday, the UK-based website Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported that a source close to Hashd al-Shaabi (PMU), a collection of Shi'ite militias affiliated with the Iraqi government, had said a Hezbollah commander was killed fighting against Islamic State in ...

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Hezbollah commander's death in Iraq overshadows Mideast, Israel - The Jerusalem Post

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region Vian Amer Noori Sulaimani, a Kurdish woman who won the Miss Iraq beauty pageant contest says she is planning to run in the upcoming Miss Universe contests. Vian, 23, a native of the Kurdish city of Sulaimani won the title of Miss Iraq last month, coming from the Karkh side of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. A statement from her team says that Vian will be joining two contests for Miss Universe in the United Kingdom and the United States. In both pageant contests she will be representing Iraq. In her current title of Miss Iraq, she is working on projects run by the Ministry of Culture as well as non-governmental organizations. Vian works as an analyst at an investment/insurance firm and holds a degree in software engineering. This is the first time she has competed in a beauty pageant. Miss Iraq is one of Iraqs oldest surviving national cultural events. It was founded by the Hotel and Tourism Association of Iraq in 1972. The event is the only official beauty pageant of Iraq which includes the Kurdistan Region and is recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Antiquities of Iraq. It is also the only national pageant authorized to send representatives abroad to international competitions. This year also marks the first time that women of Arab, Kurdish, Chaldo-Assyrian, Turkmen and Yazidi origin competed in a national event together.

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Kurdish Miss Iraq has her eyes on future Miss Universe - Rudaw

SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 2, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 30 strikes consisting of 51 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 19 strikes consisting of 23 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, three strikes destroyed nine ISIS oil stills, three vehicles, an ISIS oil storage tank and an ISIS oil truck.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed six ISIS wellheads and five ISIS oil trucks.

-- Near Mayadin, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Raqqa, 11 strikes engaged nine ISIS tactical units and destroyed five vehicles, three fighting positions, a front end loader and an ISIS crane.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 13 strikes consisting of 55 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed a mortar system.

-- Near Huwayjah, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS staging area, a vehicle and a supply cache.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed two command-and-control centers.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and a sniper; destroyed 11 fighting positions, four rocket-propelled grenade systems, three medium machine guns, two mortar systems, a heavy machine gun and a command-and-control node; damaged 12 ISIS supply routes and four fighting positions; and suppressed a mortar team and a medium machine gun.

-- Near Qaim, three strikes destroyed two vehicle-borne bombs and an explosives factory.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne-bomb facility.

-- Near Tuz, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed seven ISIS-held buildings and two vehicles.

May 30 Strikes

Task force officials also reported details today about strikes that occurred May 30 and for which details were not available in time for yesterday's report:

-- Near Raqqa in Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS command-and-control node.

-- Near Mosul in Iraq, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed two fighting positions, a heavy machine gun, a vehicle and a vehicle-borne bomb; damaged a fighting position; and suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Strikes Continue Against ISIS Targets in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense

A worker walks between pipes at the oil and gas separation facility at the Baba Gurgur oil field in the Arafa district of Kirkuk, northern Iraq, on May 13, 2004.

Oil tankers shipped the most crude from Iraq in six months in May, when OPECs second-biggest producer was negotiating with the groups other members to persist with supply constraints to shore up the global market.

Tankers loaded 122 million barrels of Iraqi crude at ports in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea last month, according to vessel-tracking and shipping agent data gathered by Bloomberg. The daily outflow of 3.93 million barrels was just shy of the record, set in November, and exceeded that of October, thebaseline month for cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Ambitious goals to keep expanding its output capacity, coupled with an economy thats still reeling from decades of bloody conflict, mean Iraq is among the most closely monitored nations for compliance to OPECs curbs. Along with Russia and other non-member oil suppliers, the exporter club is seeking to shrink a crude glut thats holding prices at about $50 a barrel, less than half where they were three years ago.

Iraq is the big one in terms of growing production and not having too much inclination to cut, said Robin Mills, head of Dubai-based consultancy Qamar Energy. Out of the OPEC members, its the one to watch.

The countrys state oil marketing company, known as SOMO, sells crude via the southern port of Basra in the Persian Gulf as well as through a pipeline to Turkey. The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government independently ships oil that it produces at fields in the north of the country via Turkish ports. The flows captured by tanker tracking are for both.

Sales from federally operated fields excluding those from the KRG averaged 3.262 million barrels a day, the Oil Ministry in Baghdad said on Thursday. Tanker tracking shows those flows for that oil at 3.31 million barrels a day.

Exports from neighboring Iran also surged in May, reaching 2.2 million barrels a day, compared with 1.82 million in April, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Shipments from Libya, unbounded by OPEC restrictions, are at a 2 1/2 year high.

OPECs production limits took effect in January, initially for a period of six months, with OPEC and partners agreeing May 25 to another nine months of reductions. While it could be because of extra output, Iraqs gain in May can also be explained in part by catching up on reduced flows in April, when a damaged jetty was under repair.

Iraq agreed in the OPEC deal to cut output by 210,000 barrels a day from its October level. While exports are not a perfect match for output, the market watches them closely to get an idea of production. Iraq doesnt have the same capacity to store crude as some other producer nations, meaning that whats pumped out of the ground is piped relatively quickly onto ships.

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Iraq's Crude Exports Hit 2017 High Before OPEC Cuts Extension - Bloomberg