Iraqi PM: Security Reforms Top Government Priorities

Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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Iraqi PM: Security Reforms Top Government Priorities

Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia al-Sudani addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, September 22, 2023. (Reuters)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed on Saturday that reforms at the security institution were his government’s top priority.

He spoke of restructuring and modernizing the institution and the training of its members and of combating corruption.

The government has worked on rehabilitating 34,000 members of the security forces, he told a graduation ceremony at the Higher Institute for Security and Administrative Development.

Tens of thousands of new members have been recruited “to pump new blood into the institution,” he added.

On corruption, the PM called on the security forces to be on constant alert and readiness.

Their plans must be based on intelligence information, he added, while also urging the need to constantly modernize these plans to benefit from the latest developments in the security field.

Sudani spoke of combating drugs, which he said were no less dangerous than ISIS terrorism.

They are a threat to social security, he warned, calling for intensifying border security to combat smuggling.

He also stressed the need for cooperation and coordination with regional and international organizations in the fight against drugs.



World Bank Presents $1 Billion Program for Lebanon Reconstruction

A man walks past the rubble of buildings that were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A man walks past the rubble of buildings that were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
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World Bank Presents $1 Billion Program for Lebanon Reconstruction

A man walks past the rubble of buildings that were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A man walks past the rubble of buildings that were destroyed in Israeli strikes during the latest war in the southern Lebanese village of Ramia near the southern border on March 5, 2025. (Photo by Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

The World Bank has presented a $1 billion program for the reconstruction of Lebanon, the Lebanese prime minister's office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The program would include $250 million as a loan, with the rest of the financing to come from international aid, it added.

The cost of reconstruction and recovery for Lebanon following the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war is estimated at $11 billion, the World Bank said in a new report Friday.
The war killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands and caused widespread destruction in the nation.
The report by the World Bank’s Lebanon Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment covered damage and losses in ten sectors across the country from Oct. 8, 2023 until Dec. 20, 2024.
A US-brokered ceasefire went into effect in late November.