Ahmed al-Sharaa (image: x.com/joshua_landis)
Saudi Arabia plans to pay off Syria’s debts to the World Bank, reported Reuters. It will help to get approval of grants worth millions of dollars for reconstructing the war affected country.
The move marks the first incident in which Saudi Arabia gave financial assistance to Syria since the former president Bashar al-Assad was dethroned by the opposition in the last year.
The plan also hints similar support from the Gulf Arab nations for Syria in future. Earlier such plans, including an initiative by the UAE to fund salaries, were held up by uncertainty over US sanctions.
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According to Reuters, in the last month the US had approved Qatar for their plan to provide Syria with gas via Jordan aiming to improving its insufficient electric supply.
The debt of Syria to the World Bank is counted to be around $15 million in arrears. As the amount will be paid off, the grants and other financial assistance will be approved by the international financial institution. The previous plans to pay off the debts using the assets frozen abroad, failed due to the insufficient foreign currency with Damascus.
According to the Syrian news agency Sana, a meeting of a technical delegation of the World Bank with Syria’s finance Minister Mohammed Yosr Bernieh was held on Monday. The meeting, which is the maiden one between the Syrian government and the World Bank, discussed strengthening financial and economic ties between both sides. In the meeting, Bernieh highlighted the drawback of international sanctions on Syria and policies of Assad’s regime on the country’s financial and banking sector.
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The US had imposed tough sanctions on Syria during Assad’s rule. As per Reuters reports, Damascus will make its first visit to Washington sending a high-level delegation to Washington for the yearly spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF later this month. However, there are not clear details on whether the delegation will meet any US officials.
Syria is now ruled by its second transitional government formed as a provisional government on March 29, 2025 under their interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa. It was on December 8, 2024, the opposition forces led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham under Sharaa, toppled the 24 years long dictatorship regime of Bashar al- Assad.
