“Suspicions from A to Z”… A ticking time bomb triggered by railway contracts and Baghdad Airport
“Suspicions from A to Z”… A ticking time bomb triggered by railway contracts and Baghdad Airport
6-14-2026
Information / Special..
Former MP Yasser Al-Husseini opened fire today, Sunday, on investment files in the Iraqi transport sector, stressing that the contract for the new railway project is surrounded by “major question marks” and huge “corruption suspicions”, describing the file as being tainted with corruption from A to Z.
Al-Husseini told Al-Maalouma that “there are complicit parties within the Ministry of Transport working as an arm of the private investor to whom the Iraqi railway project was referred at the expense of the country’s higher interest,” indicating that “those parties handed over to the judiciary misleading documents and contracts that do not reflect the shocking truth of the concluded agreement.”
He added that “the funds allocated to the project are very large, while the profits that will accrue to the investing company are estimated at enormous sums reaching about a quarter of a trillion dollars over the duration of the contract.”
Al-Husseini pointed out that “the 43-year investment period is not limited to the rehabilitation of the railways only, but also gives the investor the role of operator who takes about 90% of the expected revenues of the project,” noting that “the feasibility study indicates annual revenues estimated at about 7 billion and 300 million dinars, which will lead to the depletion of Iraq’s resources in the long term.”
He explained that “the project’s infrastructure will need rehabilitation after the contract expires, which weakens its expected economic viability,” accusing what he described as “corruption whales” of being behind the conclusion of such contracts to achieve large financial gains for their own benefit.
Al-Husseini called on the government to “withdraw the railway project contract and reconsider the mechanisms for implementing major economic projects in a way that ensures the protection of public funds and achieves the state’s interest.”
In a related context, Al-Husseini stressed that “the project to rehabilitate Baghdad International Airport also raises many suspicions of corruption, warning against granting foreign companies broad powers in managing and monitoring Iraqi airspace, which may affect national sovereignty and control over the country’s skies.”
Al-Husseini criticized the previous government for rushing into these contracts without adequately studying their negative economic and strategic repercussions for Iraq.
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