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Diriyah awards $727m Waldorf Astoria superblock deal Administrator17 June 2026
Saudi gigaproject developer Diriyah Company has awarded a SR2.7bn ($727m) contract for the main construction works on the development’s Waldorf Astoria superblock.
The contract was awarded to the joint venture of Hassan Allam Construction Saudi and UCC Saudi, the local branch of Qatar’s Urbacon Holding.
The Waldorf Astoria superblock is a mixed-use development comprising a Waldorf Astoria hotel, Waldorf Astoria-branded residences, commercial and residential facilities, and office space.
The Waldorf Astoria hotel will feature 200 keys, while the residential component will comprise 47 branded residences.
The project is located on the Grand Boulevard South and Northern Arterial Road in the Boulevard Northwestern district at Diriyah Gate 2.
Diriyah Company tendered the contract in November last year, with submissions due in January, as MEED reported.
Diriyah Company Group CEO Jerry Inzerillo said: “We are delighted to announce this latest major construction contract for the Waldorf Astoria superblock as we continue to progress at pace across the Diriyah development area. The Waldorf Astoria will be a world-class addition to our growing portfolio of globally renowned hospitality brands, further strengthening Diriyah’s appeal as a globally significant destination that offers world-class hospitality and lifestyle experiences.
“Together with our partners, we look forward to delivering another landmark development that supports the kingdom’s Vision 2030 ambitions and contributes to the continued growth and success of Diriyah.”
Hassan Allam, chairman and CEO of Hassan Allam Holding, said: “We are proud to support the development of one of the kingdom’s most ambitious and transformative destinations and to continue our partnership with Diriyah Company in bringing its vision to life.
“Drawing on more than 90 years of experience across the Mena region, we remain committed to delivering the highest standards of quality and excellence on landmark projects that are helping shape the kingdom’s future.”
Ramez Al-Khayyat, UCC Holding president and group CEO, said: “Being awarded this contract by Diriyah Company marks another important milestone in our growing partnership and reinforces our shared commitment to delivering world-class developments across the kingdom. This project builds on our ongoing collaboration in Diriyah, including the delivery of four luxury hotels and the Royal Diriyah Equestrian and Polo Club in Wadi Safar.
“We value the opportunity to contribute once again to one of Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious and prestigious urban development destinations, supporting the vision of creating a world-class cultural, hospitality and lifestyle hub.”
The latest award follows Diriyah Company’s award of an estimated SR730m ($195m) construction contract for civic quarter buildings within the Diriyah development to local contractor Al-Rashid Trading & Contracting Company (RTCC).
In April, Diriyah announced a SR1.84bn ($490m) construction contract to build the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA) within the Diriyah development. The contract was awarded to a consortium of Egyptian contractor Hassan Allam Construction Saudi and Saudi Arabia’s Albawani.
In March, Diriyah Company awarded an estimated SR2.5bn ($666m) contract to build the Pendry superblock in the DG2 area.
The Pendry superblock includes the construction of the Pendry Hotel alongside residential and commercial assets. The package will cover 75,365 square metres and is located in the northwestern district of the DG2 area.
The previous month, Diriyah Company also awarded a SR717m ($192m) contract for the construction of the One Hotel, located in the Diriyah Two area of the masterplan, with a gross floor area of more than 31,000 sq m.
The Diriyah masterplan envisages the city as a cultural and lifestyle tourism destination. Located northwest of Riyadh’s city centre, it will cover 14 square kilometres and combine 300 years of history, culture and heritage with hospitality facilities.
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AHS Properties acquires Shangri-La hotel for $300m Administrator17 June 2026
Dubai-based real estate developer AHS Properties has announced the acquisition of the Shangri-La hotel for AED1.1bn ($300m), marking one of the largest single-asset real estate transactions in recent years.
AHS Properties acquired the hotel from local firm Mismak Asset Management.
The Shangri-La Hotel is a 43-storey, 200-metre tower located on Sheikh Zayed Road. Completed in 2003, it was among the first five-star hotels to open along the corridor.
The acquisition expands AHS Properties’ portfolio, which includes AHS Tower, a Grade A commercial development on Sheikh Zayed Road, and AHS City, the company’s master-planned mixed-use community on the same corridor.
In a statement, AHS Properties said that AHS Tower, AHS City and the Shangri-La hotel form a strategic “vertical corridor” platform, representing a significant portion of the company’s AED50bn development pipeline through the end of 2026.
“The transaction reflects AHS Properties’ strategy of deploying capital into high-quality, supply-constrained assets,” the statement added.
According to the Dubai Land Department, Dubai’s real estate sector recorded AED252bn in transactions in Q1 2026.
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UAE moves to clear the path for recovery Administrator17 June 2026
Commentary
Colin Foreman
EditorMore than three months after the conflict began to disrupt business across the Gulf, the UAE is moving to resolve the technical challenges that the economy faces as it shifts towards recovery.
The insurance gap has been a key obstacle to the recovery of aviation and tourism. Several countries continue to maintain advisories against travel to the Gulf, making it difficult or impossible for visitors to obtain conventional cover for trips to or through the region. The concern is twofold: one, becoming stranded should hostilities resume, and two, not being able to secure medical insurance. Both Emirates and Etihad have now moved to address that directly, offering insurance to passengers flying to or through their respective home hubs. The Etihad scheme, backed by DCT Abu Dhabi and underwritten by Daman, will run from July to December and covers eligible visitors for up to 15 days.
The second area of concern is real estate. Anecdotally, buyers in sectors economically exposed to the conflict have found it increasingly difficult to obtain mortgage financing, a problem that has become especially acute at the point of handover. The recently signed partnership between Dubai Holding Real Estate and Commercial Bank of Dubai is designed to ease that pressure. The programme opens financing from the 30% construction stage once buyers have met a 50% payment threshold, giving purchasers earlier visibility of their borrowing capacity and reducing uncertainty during the off-plan purchase process.
Taken together, the two initiatives show that the UAE is proactively addressing the technical hurdles as and when they arise. As the recovery gathers momentum, more challenges will surface. The capacity and willingness to address them as they emerge will be crucial to a meaningful recovery.
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Libya signs three oil deals after licensing round Administrator17 June 2026
Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) has signed three production-sharing agreements with several international energy companies following the country’s first licensing round in nearly two decades.
The three agreements have been signed with the following consortiums:
- Block O1 – offshore – Eni (Italy; 60%) and QatarEnergy (40%)
- Block O7 – offshore – Repsol (Spain; 40%), Turkiye Petrolleri A O (TPAO; Turkiye; 40%) and MOL Group (Hungary; 20%)
- Block C3 – onshore – Repsol and TPAO
The contracts are three of the five announced as awarded in February this year as part of the 2025 licensing round.
The three contracts were signed on 15 June.
It is not known why the remaining two awarded contracts have not been signed.
The remaining two contracts are:
- Block M1 – onshore – Aiteo (Nigeria)
- Block S4 – onshore – Chevron (US)
Libya is seeking to attract investment and raise oil production capacity to 2 million barrels a day (b/d) from around 1.4 million b/d currently.
The chairman of NOC, Massoud Suleman, said that the agreements reflected growing confidence in Libya’s oil and gas sector and would support exploration, development and production growth.
The 2025 licensing round was Libya’s first licensing round since 2007.
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US–Iran deal sets Hormuz road map Administrator17 June 2026
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The US-Iran agreement, declared complete on 14 June, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, lifts the US naval blockade and ends a war that has closed the Gulf’s export artery since 28 February. The strait reopens at Friday’s signing on paper, but the recovery will take months.
US President Donald Trump announced the deal on Truth Social, authorising the "toll-free opening" of the strait and the immediate removal of the blockade, with formal signing set for Geneva on 19 June – with vice-president JD Vance to sign for Washington and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf for Tehran in the highest-level US-Iran meeting since 1979.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi confirmed the text was finalised but said Tehran would not implement it until signing, with the strait staying closed in the interim.
Signing versus substance
The signing on 19 June is merely the starting line that will set in motion a partial reopening to traffic alongside a clearance operation to remove the mines laid by Tehran across key sections of the strait.
The memorandum gives Iranian forces 30 days from signing to clear the strait of mines. At the same time, the Pentagon’s estimates appear to suggest that a full minesweeping could take up to six months, even with three dedicated vessels in the region.
Such gaps – here a 30-day treaty obligation against a six-month operational reality – have become the running feature of the bilateral negotiations, which have been framed by mutual distrust and plagued by an absence of granular detail.
The deal is welcome for the region despite its uncertainty. Behind the mines sits a tanker backlog built over more than 100 days, and Gulf producers that throttled back production and need time and assurances to restore flow.
Before the war, roughly 100 ships transited daily; Kpler now projects around 40 a day could sail within the first month, but with an estimated 300 loaded vessels stranded on either side of the strait, and 250 more sitting empty and idle in the Gulf, it is a pressure release valve, not an immediate restoration of flow.
A total restoration of oil and trade flows is unlikely to come into view before the year’s end.
Insurance represents the second brake, with war-risk premiums standing at 1-4% of vessel value per transit, or about $8m for a $200m tanker – against less than 0.1% before the war.
Shipping associations are no less cautious, with the Baltic and International Maritime Council calling for verified mine-free routes before volume traffic resumes.
Insurance underwriters are likewise unlikely to relent on prices until clearance is confirmed.
Conditional relief
Markets have already traded the sentiment, however. Brent settled at $87.33 on 13 June – an eight-week low – and have fallen further as the deal has firmed. As of early morning trading on 16 June, the first full day of trading after the Islamic New Year, Brent was down at $78.
Yet the relief remains highly conditional: a 60-day nuclear negotiation now follows the signing, and a breakdown in either this, passage through the strait or peace in Lebanon could return the strait to crisis.
The US-touted toll-free terminology is also narrower than billed, with the Iranians instead affirming a 60-day grace period for fees but not eliminating the possibility of “fees” for navigation, environmental and insurance services after that point.
The distinction is legal, not rhetorical, with international maritime law barring tolls on passage through natural straits but permitting the imposition of service fees on vessels passing through territorial waters.
It is through this terminology that Iran is now consistently framing its plans to charge fees from passing vessels through the office of its Persian Gulf Strait Authority – established 5 May and since sanctioned by the US Treasury.
For the Gulf, a 60-day waiver that resolves into an Iranian (and possibly joint Omani) fee regime is a pause in Iran’s tollgate economy, not its end – and would represent a strategic concession for the US, the Gulf and the globe.
Levant entanglement
Lebanon is another conditional space that the deal cannot fully escape, with a flare-up on that front being the final potential trigger that could collapse the 60-day agreement.
Iran has explicitly tied a ceasefire in Lebanon to the resolution of transit in the strait, but Israel does not agree with this, and the linkage may have inadvertently handed Tel Aviv the exact tool it needs to disrupt the US–Iran ceasefire – through the simple of continuing a conflict that it already wants to continue.
Within a day of the deal, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the IDF would stay in southern Lebanon “without any time limit”, with US officials corroborating that Israeli withdrawal was never a condition of a deal.
On the ground, the ceasefire is already looking frail, with post-deal fire straying in both directions and already endangering the regional calm and Hormuz reopening the Gulf is already pricing.
For Gulf producers and shippers, the distinction and in some cases friction between what the deal declares and what it actually delivers remains a cause for uncertainty.
A declaration is easy, but the delivery requires nuclear negotiation, mine-clearance verification, insurance repricing and a 60-day political test before barrels can again move at volume.
Trump, who has been frustrated for months with the slow progress on Iran from a US perspective, is also more than likely to be distracted by other concerns on a timeline shorter than 60 days – risking the political will to peace coming up short.
In the Gulf, whether Saudi Arabia and the UAE send cabinet-level representatives to Geneva on Friday will signal whether the region’s political leaders are willing to wield the political capital necessary to keep the US on track and pursue the ceasefire to fruition.
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Firms prepare offers for Bahrain’s Sitra IWPP Administrator17 June 2026
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At least three firms are preparing to submit offers for the 1.2GW Sitra independent water and power plant (IWPP), with bidding due to close on 17 June.
The Sitra IWPP is a combined-cycle gas turbine plant expected to have a generation capacity of about 1,200MW of electricity. The project’s seawater reverse osmosis desalination facility will have a production capacity of 30 million imperial gallons a day (MIGD).
The build-own-operate project is being procured by Bahrain’s Electricity & Water Authority (EWA) under a public-private partnership framework for 20-25 years.
According to sources, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa), Acwa (Saudi Arabia) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) are preparing to submit separate offers for the project, which has had several deadline extensions since the tender was released last year.
Bids are scheduled to be opened on 18 June.
Lebanon-headquartered Khatib & Alami was recently awarded a consulting contract for the project, worth $1.91m. This was despite the consultancy submitting only the third-lowest bid behind Spain’s Ayesa ($1.25m) and WSP Middle East Architectural & Engineering ($1.27m).
MEED previously reported that six individual companies had prequalified to bid, including Gulf Investment Corporation (Kuwait), Jera (Japan) and Sumitomo Corporation (Japan).
China Energy Engineering Corporation and China Datang (Overseas Hong Kong, China) prequalified as the only consortium. It is unclear if either of these will submit an offer.
EWA’s transaction advisory team for the project comprises KPMG Fakhro as the financial consultant and Trowers & Hamlins as the legal consultant.
Al-Hidd IWP
Sitra is Bahrain’s fourth IWPP, replacing the previously planned Al-Dur 3. Bids for another EWA initiative, the planned Al-Hidd independent water plant, have been under evaluation since the beginning of the year.
According to a source, a decision on the project’s development is currently awaiting “tender board approval”.
The Al-Hidd seawater reverse osmosis plant is expected to have a production capacity of about 60 MIGD, equivalent to roughly 272,000 cubic metres a day of potable water.
Acwa (Saudi Arabia) and a consortium of GS Inima (South Korea/Spain) / Lamar Holding (local) each submitted bids for the project.
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Petrofac seeks to reclaim lost ground in UAE projects market Administrator17 June 2026
Commentary
Indrajit Sen
Oil & gas editorPetrofac has turned a corner. The completion of sales transactions for its Asset Solutions business in April and the UAE-based unit Petrofac Emirates in late May, mark the end of a tumultuous period for the UK-headquartered company that started in at least 2019. They are also the beginning of a new chapter.
Since the start of the decade, Petrofac has been rattled by problems cascading from a corruption scandal that led key clients in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region to suspend the company from project tendering. It also caused widespread layoffs, saw the company's shares delisted from the London Stock Exchange in May 2025 and, ultimately, forced the firm to file for administration in the UK in October due to mounting financial challenges.
In the midst of these legal and financial struggles, the Covid-19 pandemic dealt further blows to Petrofac's operations.
Yet despite the troubles of its besieged parent company, Abu Dhabi-based Petrofac Emirates continued to win oil and gas contracts from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group).
Petrofac Emirates, which was established in Abu Dhabi in 2008 and operates a major base in the emirate of Sharjah, won approximately $6.4bn-worth of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts in the Mena region in the first half of the decade, according to data from regional project tracker MEED Projects. Nearly half of the company's total contract awards in 2020-25 was generated in the UAE.
Petrofac Emirates won major contracts for the third tranche of the first phase of Adnoc Gas’ Rich Gas Development programme in June 2025, valued at $1.2bn. The contracts cover engineering, procurement and construction management services and overseeing the procurement and construction contracts for the building of a new inlet facility; two new gas dehydration and compression trains, each with a capacity of 420 million cubic feet a day; and associated infrastructure at the Das Island liquefaction facility.
Petrofac Emirates is also a key contractor within Adnoc Gas’ larger scheme to upgrade its sales gas pipeline network across the UAE. The firm has won two out of eight EPC packages for the project, which is also known as Estidama.
Separately, Adnoc Gas awarded Petrofac a $615m EPC contract in October 2023 for the carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery project at the Habshan complex. The planned Habshan carbon capture, utilisation and storage facility will have the capacity to capture and permanently store 1.5 million tonnes a year of CO2 within geological formations deep underground.
Looking ahead, Petrofac Emirates is expected to thrive under its new ownership – a consortium of financial investors. The group is led by New York-headquartered hedge fund Mason Capital Management and UK-based asset management firm Pearlstone Alternative, and is expected to make significant investments to improve Petrofac Emirates’ core capabilities and increase the company's workforce.
The management change at Petrofac Emirates also comes at an opportune time, as Adnoc strives to achieve an oil production capacity of 5 million barrels a day by 2027 – in a campaign known as Accelerated Integrated Programme 5 – and attain gas self-sufficiency by the end of the decade.
With its financial stability secured under the new owners, a resurgent Petrofac is likely to compete to regain its lost share of the UAE projects market – as well as for Adnoc Group’s recently announced AED200bn ($54.45bn) capital expenditure budget for new project awards in 2026-28.
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Local consortium wins Egypt grid contracts Administrator17 June 2026
Egypt’s Korra Energi and High Dam for Electrical & Industrial Projects (Hidelco) have won contracts to build two sections of a major power transmission project connecting wind farms in the Gulf of Suez to the national grid.
The contracts were awarded by the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC). In a statement, Korra said the contracts cover the first and third lots of a wider scheme involving the construction of 500-kilovolt (kV) extra-high-voltage overhead transmission lines.
The consortium will execute a 45-kilometre transmission line under Lot 1, valued at £E1.5bn ($29m).
Lot 3 covers a 52km transmission line and is valued at £E1.65bn.
The two contracts have a combined value of more than £E3bn ($58m). Both are scheduled for completion within one year of contractual close, Korra said.
The transmission lines will connect new wind power projects in the Gulf of Suez to Egypt’s electricity network. The project is expected to enable the integration of more than 2GW of renewable energy capacity.
The wider transmission scheme has an estimated investment value of £E12bn-14bn and has been divided into eight packages. EETC is implementing the project as part of efforts to strengthen grid infrastructure and increase its capacity to absorb renewable energy generation.
The award follows Korra Energi’s listing on the Egyptian Stock Exchange earlier this month. The company offered an 11% stake through a public and private placement at £E2.97 ($0.06) a share.
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Retirement creates multibillion-dollar opportunity for region Administrator16 June 2026
The GCC has long relied on government pension schemes and employer gratuity payments to provide for retirement. As workforces expand, demographics shift and expatriate communities put down longer-term roots, those arrangements are coming under growing strain. A new report from BlackRock argues that addressing those pressures represents one of the region’s more consequential economic policy opportunities – not only for individuals, but also for the depth and sophistication of its financial markets.
The asset manager’s recently published Read on Retirement: GCC 2026 study, based on a survey of 1,000 working individuals across the UAE and Saudi Arabia, depicts a workforce that is motivated but structurally underserved.
In the UAE, the survey finds that 78% of workers feel positive about their current financial position. Yet 59% say financial worries prevent them from planning for the future, and 58% worry about outliving their savings. Retirement preparedness stands at 67% among UAE nationals, underpinned by public pension provision, but falls to 46% among expatriates.
Three-quarters of respondents say they have begun preparing for retirement. Yet only 24% are contributing to a pension or long-term savings plan. The remainder are saving through cash, gold and property – assets that may preserve value but are not designed to generate sustainable retirement income. The survey indicates that 49% of respondents hold savings in cash, 40% in gold and 18% in property, suggesting a substantial share of potential long-term capital is held in short-term or non-productive forms.
“What we see in the data is a clear retirement knowledge gap, not an intention gap. People are doing the right things in principle, but they don’t yet have access to the types of investment frameworks that can deliver sustainable retirement outcomes,” says Kashif Riaz, head of Middle East financial markets advisory at BlackRock.
Good timing
Several factors have converged to make retirement reform a timely priority. The UAE’s population is young compared with other developed markets, which provides a wide window for building long-duration savings pools.
“It is a sweet spot right now – a very young population – and like all other geographies in the world, populations age over time,” Riaz says. “It is best to solve the problem structurally when the population is young and you have more workers than retirees.”
The character of the expatriate workforce is also changing. A growing proportion of overseas workers is making long-term residency decisions, shifting their financial planning accordingly.
“The demand for retirement solutions has grown much broader as expatriates make this their home for the long term,” Riaz notes. “Rather than conducting their banking, investing and primary real estate activity in their home countries with the intent to return, that is all happening here.”
Reform is already under way. The UAE has introduced an alternative end-of-service benefit framework allowing employers to shift from the traditional, unfunded gratuity model – where liabilities sit on employer balance sheets and assets remain uninvested – to funded, defined-contribution structures managed by licensed providers. The Dubai International Financial Centre’s (DIFC’s) Employee Workplace Savings scheme is the most developed operational example. The private sector is beginning to follow.
“Historically, in this region, only the largest or most multinational employers offered employee savings funds, but that is spreading,” Riaz says. “More insurance companies and asset managers are looking to develop the infrastructure to offer retirement solutions. We expect that to accelerate.”
Financial markets
For stakeholders in the region’s financial centres and for institutional investors, the big opportunity is what a well-established retirement system would mean for regional markets. The DIFC, Abu Dhabi Global Market and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Financial District have each invested substantially in regulatory and institutional capacity to attract and manage long-term capital. A domestically generated pool of retirement savings would provide durable demand for the instruments and markets they host, spanning listed equities, sukuk, private credit and infrastructure funds.
“The bigger and more vibrant a retirement system in a country, the bigger and more vibrant that country’s financial markets will also be,” Riaz says.
There is a precedent. Australia’s superannuation system, built over three decades, is widely credited with transforming the depth and sophistication of Australian capital markets.
For regional fixed income, a domestic retirement pool would create a durable base of long-duration buyers for government and corporate sukuk issuances that currently depend heavily on international appetite. For listed equities, it would deepen liquidity on bourses in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. And for infrastructure, it would provide precisely the patient capital the growing regional PPP pipeline requires.
Favourable conditions
The retirement survey findings suggest unusually favourable demand conditions for reform. More than 90% of both UAE nationals and expatriates find defined-contribution workplace savings schemes appealing, with similar proportions indicating they would participate if such schemes were available. The main barriers are structural and informational rather than attitudinal. Only 13% of expatriates and 21% of nationals report confidence in understanding the retirement savings options available to them, while 92% say they would save more if given better incentives.
With 56% of respondents planning to increase their retirement savings, the case for directing that capital into more productive long-term channels is clear.
“By expanding access to funded, professionally managed workplace savings schemes, the UAE can not only strengthen financial outcomes for individuals, but also mobilise significant pools of domestic capital, allowing people’s savings to grow alongside the economy they are helping to build,” Riaz says.
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Gulf liquidity outpaces Syria’s financial reconnection Administrator16 June 2026
Syria has the capital it needs to begin rebuilding. What it lacks is a banking system capable of moving that money at scale, and through 2026, the gap between the availability and mobility of funds has set the ceiling on recovery.
The capital itself is overwhelmingly Gulf and Turkish, deployed along clear lines rather than in a scramble. The $216bn rebuild estimated by the World Bank in its October 2025 damage assessment has room for several principals, and so far they are not competing for the same ground.
Qatar’s UCC Holding anchors two of the largest commitments: a $7bn power generation programme and a $4bn rebuild of Damascus International airport, both under contract since late 2025. The consortiums lean heavily on Turkish contractors, Cengiz and Kalyon among them.
Saudi Arabia’s package, announced in Damascus on 7 February, tilts to infrastructure and services: a SR7.5bn ($2bn) phased rebuild of Aleppo’s airports through the newly launched Elaf Investment Fund, and an STC fibre-optic and datacentre build worth more than SR3bn ($800m).
Regional diplomacy is taking precedence over the commercial carve-up: Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman agreed in Riyadh in early February to coordinate on Syrian reconstruction.
Abu Dhabi’s political embrace came more slowly than Riyadh’s or Doha’s – out of caution over the Islamist-led government– but the UAE’s major ports groups moved decisively.
Dubai’s DP World signed for Tartous in July 2025 and its 30-year concession went operational in mid-November. AD Ports followed on 6 November with a $22m purchase of 20% of the Latakia container terminal – run by France’s CMA CGM – which handles over 95% of Syria’s container volumes.
The wider UAE play has since broadened amid the US-Iran conflict in the Gulf, during which Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa repeatedly voiced solidarity with the UAE.
In May, Dubai stepped up institutionally. Investment Corporation of Dubai managing director Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Shaibani met Al-Sharaa to discuss channelling UAE capital into real estate, tourism and financial services, while Abu Dhabi’s Eagle Hills presented plans for two urban schemes in Damascus and Latakia, with a reported budget of $50bn.
Syria’s railway establishment has meanwhile signed a framework with the Latakia terminal’s operators to study moving containers by rail to dry ports at Adra, Hisyah and Aleppo – the first thread connecting a Gulf-invested port to the inland network.
Certification is key
Saudi Arabia and Qatar cleared Syria’s $15.5m World Bank arrears in mid-2025, restoring its eligibility for grants. International financial institutions are reciprocating and returning, but cautiously – and not with a view to driving cash volume.
The World Bank portfolio comprises 10 grant-funded projects worth just over $1bn over three years. The approvals so far are foundational: a $146m electricity grant restoring transmission lines and 400kV interconnections with Turkiye and Jordan; $225m across two grants for water and health; and $20m for public financial management.
Transport is next in the queue rather than in hand. Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr said in June that Syria is seeking World Bank grants of between $65m and $200m for railway rehabilitation, to restore a transit corridor that reportedly moved up to 115,000 trucks a year between the Turkish and Jordanian borders before 2011.
Broader financing has not followed, however. The IMF’s February mission extended no loan programme, nor was lending discussed, despite the fund noting tight fiscal management and a 2025 budget surplus.
The IMF, and the World Bank alongside it, named the blockage: a banking sector that needs rehabilitating, central bank independence yet to be built, and restricted banking access still obstructing wider recovery.
Gulf backers, for their part, can commit capital in a signing ceremony, but they cannot readily push it through a system only beginning to reconnect to the outside world.
Piecemeal reopening
A few key developments have occurred. In November 2025, the central bank (pictured) sent its first Swift message in 14 years to the US Federal Reserve, and its dormant account there was reactivated. Visa and Mastercard processing then resumed in May after a 15-year hiatus.
These networks were never the key constraint, however. Correspondent banks must agree to clear Syrian transactions – and many institutions will likely continue to hold back on compliance and financial-crime grounds until proposed reforms are in place.
The moves by foreign banks have been expectedly thin as a result, and Doha has led. Qatar National Bank’s Syrian unit – a legacy presence that rode out the war – became the first to switch card acceptance on, while Qatar’s Estithmar Holding has taken a 49% stake in Syria’s Shahba Bank, becoming the sole new foreign equity entry into the sector so far.
The pound, trading near £Syr13,700 to the dollar, still sits slightly weaker than it did in 2024 – the last year of the old regime.
The fragility of the machinery showed again in May, when Al-Sharaa moved central bank governor Abdulkader Husrieh – who had overseen the Swift reconnection – to the ambassadorship to Canada; instead installing Safwat Raslan, the head of the state reconstruction fund, as his successor.
Some analysts read it as a sign of tension within the leadership over monetary policy and governance. It also flashed a warning: an institution the IMF wants independent had just changed hands at the president’s discretion.
At a June conference, the new governor pledged “institutional work and well-studied planning” with no “improvised or unilateral decisions”, defining himself against the tenure he replaced.
Raslan’s first measures constituted delays and institutional loosening. He reversed a Husrieh restriction that had confined the banknote changeover to bank branches – readmitting exchange companies and money-transfer firms – and extended the exchange deadline to the end of July. It marked the third such extension of a window first set at 90 days from the 1 January launch, with the original deadline having slipped by four months.
Conditional funding
The cashflow blockage is moulding Damascus’s financing strategy: take the institutions’ endorsement, but decline their direct lending, and lean on funding with fewer strings.
Rather than qualifying for an IMF programme and accepting its conditions, it is routing donor money through the Syrian Development Fund, which is now run by the man just made central bank governor – concentrating the reconstruction purse and monetary authority in one pair of hands.
The approach spares Syria a debt overhang, but it also leaves reconstruction dependent on Gulf commitments that arrive at the pace of politics rather than as drawable finance.
The near-term tests are already dated. The banknote changeover – at 63% as of early June – must close by 31 July, and the banking reforms specified by the IMF must be implemented.
If both hold, the pledged billions will gain a financial system to land in. If either slips, Syria’s reconstruction remains a stack of signed announcements waiting on the financial machinery to catch up.
This month’s special report on Syria also includes:
> PROJECTS: Momentum builds for Syrian projects
> OIL & GAS: Activity ramps up in Syria’s oil and gas sector
> CONSTRUCTION: Prospects improve for Levant constructionhttps://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/17210681/main.gif