&w=3840&q=100)
Lebanon's post-war reconstruction needs $11 bn. World Bank is giving it $250 mn
Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank's Middle East regional director, said the newly approved support is the first phase of a $1 billion scalable framework to address the country's needs read more
A photo taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun, shows smoke rising from buildings in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila during an Israeli army operation in the village. AFP
The World Bank said Wednesday (June 25) it has approved major funding packages for Lebanon and Syria to support reconstruction efforts following recent conflicts, with a combined total of nearly $400 million aimed at repairing infrastructure and restoring critical services.
Lebanon will receive $250 million in financing to help rebuild vital public infrastructure and manage debris in areas devastated by last year's war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The conflict, which escalated into a full-scale war in September 2024, ended with a ceasefire in late November but left widespread destruction across southern and eastern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
The World Bank has previously estimated Lebanon's post-war reconstruction and recovery costs at approximately $11 billion. Jean-Christophe Carret, the Bank's Middle East regional director, said the newly approved support is the first phase of a $1 billion scalable framework to address the country's needs.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam welcomed the funding as 'a key step in reconstruction' and said it would strengthen government-led recovery efforts while enabling access to additional financing.
Lebanon, already grappling with a prolonged economic crisis since 2019, is relying heavily on foreign aid to fund its post-war rebuilding efforts.
Syria to receive $146 mn for power sector rehabilitation
In a separate announcement, the World Bank said it has approved a $146 million grant to Syria to rehabilitate its electricity sector, which has been severely damaged during the 14-year civil war. The funding, sourced from the International Development Association, will go toward restoring high-voltage transmission lines and substations, as well as acquiring maintenance equipment and spare parts.
Carret described the rehabilitation of Syria's power infrastructure as 'a critical, no-regret investment' that could improve living conditions, support the return of displaced people, and contribute to economic recovery.
The grant marks the first step in what the World Bank described as a larger plan to assist Syria in post-war recovery. The announcement comes after Saudi Arabia and Qatar pledged to repay Syria's World Bank debts, clearing the way for renewed international support following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and the subsequent lifting of many Western sanctions.
The United Nations estimates the total cost of Syria's reconstruction at more than $400 billion.
With inputs from agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
India tightens security for nuclear installations amid ongoing conflicts
This decision follows Operation Sindoor and rising tensions between Israel and Iran, which are raising concerns over potential nuclear threats Puja Das New Delhi Listen to This Article India is tightening security at its nuclear installations, including power plants, fuel fabrication facilities, civilian research reactors, and military bases. This decision follows Operation Sindoor and the Israel-Iran conflict, which have raised concerns of potential nuclear threats, according to two senior officials. Operation Sindoor was launched by India against Pakistan on May 7 after a terrorist attack killed 26 civilians and tourists in Pahalgam on April 22. On the other hand, the conflict between Israel and Iran escalated on June 13. Last week, a high-level meeting took place in Delhi that included the department of atomic energy, and security agencies
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
An uneasy truce between Iran-Israel may be best-case scenario: Vandana Hari
True rapprochement between Israel and Iran remains elusive, complicated further by the Gaza conflict that has pitted Israel against Iran-backed groups like the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah, says Hari S Dinakar Amritsar Listen to This Article The conflict in West Asia has roiled Asian economies, especially India, and added fresh strain to domestic refiners. Against this backdrop, Singapore-based energy expert Vandana Hari, founder of Vanda Insights, speaks with S Dinakar via email, shedding light on India's oil and gas options amid a tentative ceasefire in the ongoing Iran-Israel-US war. Edited excerpts: How do you see the West Asian situation evolving with a delicate ceasefire in place? It's likely to be an uneasy calm, at least for the next few days — ceasefires are often fragile. Yet this one offers a sliver of cautious optimism, especially as
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Trump says US, Iranian officials will talk next week as ceasefire holds
Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries AP Dubai The fragile ceasefire between Israel and Iran appeared to be holding on Wednesday while US President Donald Trump asserted that US and Iranian officials will talk next week, giving rise to cautious hope for longer-term peace even as Tehran insisted it will not give up its nuclear programme. Trump, who helped negotiate the ceasefire that took hold Tuesday on the 12th day of the war, told reporters at a NATO summit that he wasn't particularly interested in restarting negotiations with Iran, insisting that US strikes had destroyed its nuclear programme. Earlier in the day, an Iranian official questioned whether the United States could be trusted after its weekend attack. We may sign an agreement, I don't know, Trump said. The way I look at it, they fought, the war is done." Iran has not acknowledged any talks taking place next week, though US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff has said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of negotiations between the US and Iran had been scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was cancelled when Israel attacked Iran. Earlier, Trump said the ceasefire was going very well, and added that Iran was not going to have a bomb and they're not going to enrich. Iran has insisted, however, that it will not give up its nuclear programme. In a vote underscoring the tough path ahead, its parliament agreed to fast-track a proposal that would effectively stop the country's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog that has monitored the programme for years. Ahead of the vote, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf criticised the IAEA for having refused to even pretend to condemn the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities that the US carried out on Sunday. For this reason, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran will suspend cooperation with the IAEA until security of nuclear facilities is ensured, and Iran's peaceful nuclear programme will move forward at a faster pace," Qalibaf told lawmakers. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he had written to Iran to discuss resuming inspections of their nuclear facilities. Among other things, Iran claims to have moved its highly enriched uranium ahead of the US strikes, and Grossi said his inspectors need to re-assess the country's stockpiles. We need to return, he said. We need to engage. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country was part of the 2015 deal with Iran that restricted its nuclear programme but began unravelling after Trump pulled the US out in his first term, said he hoped Tehran would come back to the table. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme was peaceful, and US intelligence agencies have assessed that Tehran is not actively pursuing a bomb. However, Israeli leaders have argued that Iran could quickly assemble a nuclear weapon. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons, which it has never acknowledged. Questions over effectiveness of the US strikes The Israel Atomic Energy Commission said its assessment was that the US and Israeli strikes have set back Iran's ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years. It did not give evidence to back up its claim. The US strikes hit three Iranian nuclear sites, which Trump said completely and fully obliterated the country's nuclear programme. When asked about a US intelligence report that found Iran's nuclear programme has been set back only a few months, Trump scoffed and said it would at least take years to rebuild. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that the strikes by US B-2 bombers using bunker-buster bombs had caused significant damage. Our nuclear installations have been badly damaged, that's for sure, he told Al Jazeera on Wednesday, while refusing to go into detail. He seemed to suggest Iran might not shut out IAEA inspectors for good, noting that the bill before parliament only talks of suspending work with the agency, not ending it. He also insisted Iran has the right to pursue a nuclear energy programme. Iran is determined to preserve that right under any circumstances, he said. Witkoff said on Fox News late on Tuesday that Israel and the US had achieved their objective of the total destruction of the enrichment capacity in Iran, and Iran's prerequisite for talks that Israel end its campaign had been fulfilled. The proof is in the pudding, he said. No one's shooting at each other. It's over. Grossi said he could not speculate on how bad the damage was but that Iran's nuclear capabilities were well known. The technical knowledge is there, and the industrial capacity is there, he said. That no one can deny, so we need to work together with them. Hopes for a long-term peace agreement An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the ceasefire agreement with Iran amounted to quiet for quiet, with no further understandings about Iran's nuclear programme going ahead. Witkoff told Fox News that Trump is now looking to land a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the ceasefire. We're already talking to each other, not just directly, but also through interlocutors, Witkoff said, adding that the conversations were promising and we're hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement. However, Baghaei, the Iranian spokesman, said Washington had torpedoed diplomacy with its attacks on nuclear sites, and that while Iran in principle was always open to talks, national security was the priority. We have to make sure whether the other parties are really serious when they're talking about diplomacy, or is it again part of their tactics to make more problems for the region and for my country, he said. China and Russia, Iran's strongest allies, welcomed the ceasefire and said they hoped it would hold. Grossi said Iran and the international community should seize the opportunity of the ceasefire for a long-term diplomatic solution. Out of the ... bad things that military conflict brings, there's also now a possibility, an opening, he said. We shouldn't miss that opportunity. A rare video by Mossad In a rare video released by Mossad, Israel's spy agency, chief David Barnea thanked the CIA for being a key partner, and his own agents for work over months and years to achieve what was unimaginable at first. Thanks to accurate intelligence, advanced technologies and operational capabilities beyond imagination, we helped the Air Force strike the Iranian nuclear project, establish aerial superiority in Iranian skies and reduce the missile threat, the agency said in a Facebook post alongside the video. During the war, Israeli airstrikes also targeted Iran's top military leadership and other sites associated with its ruling theocracy. Tehran on Tuesday put the death toll in Iran at 606, with 5,332 people wounded. The Washington-based Human Rights Activists group released figures Wednesday suggesting Israeli strikes on Iran had killed at least 1,054 and wounded 4,476. The group, which has provided detailed casualty figures from multiple rounds of unrest in Iran, said 417 of those killed were civilians and 318 were security forces. At least 28 people were killed in Israel and more than 1,000 wounded, according to officials. In the past two weeks, Iran has executed six prisoners accused of spying for Israel, including three on Wednesday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
