The World Bank has said it's approved more than $1 billion in new funding to support rebuilding efforts and infrastructure development in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.
Iraq will receive the largest portion, with $930 million allocated to upgrade its railway system, improve trade routes, generate jobs and help shift the economy away from oil dependency.
The investment will support the Iraq Railways Extension and Modernisation Project, which is expected to boost freight transport between the southern Umm Qasr Port on the Persian Gulf and the northern city of Mosul.
“This transition from reconstruction to development can drive growth and job creation,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank’s regional director for the Middle East.
In Syria, the Bank has approved a $146 million grant to restore electricity services through repairs to damaged transmission lines and substations. The announcement comes a month after Damascus signed a deal with companies from Qatar, Türkiye and the U.S. for a 5,000-megawatt energy project aimed at rebuilding the power grid.
Meanwhile, Lebanon—still recovering from its 14-month conflict with Israel—has been granted $250 million to rebuild essential infrastructure and restore basic public services.
The funds are part of the World Bank’s broader effort to support stability and recovery in a region struggling with the long-term effects of conflict and economic crisis.
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One hundred years after the First World War and more than eighty years after the devastation of the Second World War gave rise to the United Nations, humanity once again finds itself living in an age of permanent crisis.
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