Iraq Begins Setting Up Electricity Links with Saudi Arabia

A picture shows a partial view of the Dhi Qar Combined Cycle Power Plant near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on January 20, 2022. [ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images]
A picture shows a partial view of the Dhi Qar Combined Cycle Power Plant near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on January 20, 2022. [ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images]
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Iraq Begins Setting Up Electricity Links with Saudi Arabia

A picture shows a partial view of the Dhi Qar Combined Cycle Power Plant near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on January 20, 2022. [ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images]
A picture shows a partial view of the Dhi Qar Combined Cycle Power Plant near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on January 20, 2022. [ASAAD NIAZI/AFP via Getty Images]

Iraq's Electricity Ministry has begun establishing interconnection stations with Saudi Arabia and determining transmission paths.

The ministry announced that 88 percent of the interconnection lines with the Gulf countries have been completed.

Iraq’s efforts come to alleviate the severe shortage of energy supply, which has paralyzed the country’s development and economic movement for several years.

The Iraqi authorities hope to overcome the great shortage of energy supply during the hot summer season, especially after Iran deliberately cut off the supply of gas needed for generation operations in some power stations, under the pretext of Iraq’s failure to pay its dues to Tehran.

On Tuesday, the ministry announced settling Iranian gas dues for 2020 within the next few days, praising the support of the government and Parliament.

“The ministry is establishing and working on the readiness of stations to establish the link between Iraq and Saudi Arabia,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Musa told the Iraqi News Agency.

He added that the main objective of the electrical interconnection projects was the readiness and stability of the electrical network and Iraq’s access to energy markets.

Earlier this week, the Saudi Cabinet approved the MoU with Iraq in the field of electrical interconnection. This came during a session chaired by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

In previous remarks, the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity had announced the percentage of completion of the electrical connection with the Gulf countries and Turkey, and pointed to preparations for solar energy projects within the ministry’s medium-term plans.

He said that the electrical connection with Turkey has been fully completed, while the Gulf connection was 88 percent complete, emphasizing ongoing discussions over the tariff price for the line that connects Al-Faw power station with the Al-Zour station in Kuwait.

With regard to solar energy projects to generate electricity and strengthen the national system, the spokesman said that the ministry was in the process of preparing and organizing procurement, connection and implementation contracts.

He added that the matter needed a set of protocol procedures with the relevant departments, which would ready within the ministry’s medium-term plan.

The Ministry of Electricity talks about similar connections with Jordan in the hope of achieving self-sufficiency. The Ministry of Oil is also seeking large investments in the field of gas with the aim of dispensing with the purchase of Iranian gas, which costs the country’s treasury billions of dollars annually.

According to official figures, successive Iraqi governments since 2003 have spent more than USD70 billion on the electricity sector without being able to address the power shortage. Production rates are still not sufficient to meet the growing local needs.



UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Seeks $6 Billion to Ease Hunger Catastrophe in Sudan

Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)
Displaced Sudanese, who fled the Zamzam camp, gather near the town of Tawila in North Darfur on February 14, 2025. (AFP)

UN officials on Monday asked for $6 billion for Sudan this year from donors to help ease what they called the world's worst ever hunger catastrophe and the mass displacement of people brought on by civil war.

The UN appeal represents a rise of more than 40% from last year's for Sudan at a time when aid budgets around the world are under strain, partly due to a pause in funding announced by US President Donald Trump last month that has affected life-saving programs across the globe.

The UN says the funds are necessary because the impact of the 22-month war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) - that has already displaced a fifth of its population and stoked severe hunger among around half its population - looks set to worsen.

World Food Program chief Cindy McCain, speaking via video to a room full of diplomats in Geneva, said: "Sudan is now the epicenter of the world's largest and most severe hunger crisis ever."

She did not provide figures, but Sudan's total population currently stands at about 48 million people. Among previous world famines, the Bengal Famine of 1943 claimed between 2 million and 3 million lives, according to several estimates, while millions are believed to have died in the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-61.

Famine conditions have been reported in at least five locations in Sudan, including displacement camps in Darfur, a UN statement said, and this was set to worsen with continued fighting and the collapse of basic services.

"This is a humanitarian crisis that is truly unprecedented in its scale and its gravity and it demands a response unprecedented in scale and intent," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said.

One of the famine-stricken camps was attacked by the RSF last week as the group tries to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold.

While some aid agencies say they have received waivers from Washington to provide aid in Sudan, uncertainty remains on the extent of coverage for providing famine relief.

The UN plan aims to reach nearly 21 million people within the country, making it the most ambitious humanitarian response so far for 2025, and requires $4.2 billion - the rest being for those displaced by the conflict.