White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said it was Trump’s “idea” to shift the costs of disputes to local states.
The White House has indicated that US President Donald Trump will ask Arab countries to help pay for the US war against Iran, which is estimated to run into the tens of billions of dollars.
President Trump’s press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, was asked Monday whether Arab states should pay for the war, as they did during the 1990 Gulf War, when U.S. allies helped finance the U.S. intervention.
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“The president would also be very interested in calling on them,” Levitt told reporters.
“I’m not going to get ahead of him in that regard, but I certainly know that it’s an idea that he has, and I think we’re going to hear more from him in the future.”
During the Gulf War, at the request of the United States and several of its Arab neighbors, the United States led a global coalition of dozens of countries to fend off Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
Second, the countries of the region and coalition members, including Germany and Japan, raised $54 billion (equivalent to $134 billion today) in funding for the U.S. involvement.
However, this time, the United States and Israel unilaterally went to war with Iran without involving their allies or regional countries.
Earlier this month, right-wing commentator Sean Hannity, who is close to President Trump, said any cease-fire agreement should include making Iran pay for the war, which has left nearly 2,000 dead.
“They have to agree to repay America in oil for the cost of this entire military operation,” Hannity said.
However, Iran has made compensation for war damage from the United States one of its conditions.
Iran has responded to attacks by the United States and Israel with missile and drone attacks across the Middle East.
Iranian officials have said they are targeting U.S. assets in the region, but Tehran has launched attacks on civilian facilities such as hotels, airports and energy infrastructure in several Gulf countries.
Earlier this month, US media reported that officials told members of Congress in a secret hearing that the war had cost $11.3 billion in the first six days.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the amount had reached $16.5 billion by the 12th day of the conflict. Now that the war is in its 31st day, the bill is likely to be even higher.
The White House is asking Congress for at least $200 billion in additional military spending to finance military operations in Iran and replenish the Pentagon’s ammunition stockpile.
The war, which saw Iran blockade the Strait of Hormuz, sent global energy prices skyrocketing beyond the immediate price tag of the U.S. military.
The average price of a gallon of gasoline (3.8 liters) in the United States is now $3.99, more than $1 more than before the war, according to a study tracked by the American Automobile Association (AAA).
On Monday, Levitt reiterated the Trump administration’s assertion that soaring energy prices are outweighed by the benefits of weakening Iran.
“As we have reiterated over and over again, the overall message is short-term action and short-term price movements in the long-term interest of ending the threat that Iran poses to the United States, our military, and our regional allies,” he told reporters.
Iran insists it was first attacked during diplomatic negotiations and did not pose a threat to the United States or the region.
