Revealed: Iran’s Secret “Marshall Plan” for Syria

In May 2022, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard authored a detailed 33-page strategy—modeled on America’s post–World War II Marshall Plan—to rebuild war-torn Syria and deepen Damascus’s dependence on Tehran.

Files discovered by Reuters in December 2024 at Iran’s looted embassy laid out nearly forty major projects—from a €411 million Latakia power plant to a $26 million rail bridge—yet militant attacks, corruption, US sanctions, and bureaucracy stalled every effort.

When Syrian rebels deposed Bashar al-Assad that December, Iran’s diplomats and contractors fled, abandoning unpaid contracts that left Syria owing at least $178 million, and an estimated $30 billion overall to Iranian firms.