A US Defence Department official has announced that the cost of war with Iran has now reached $25 billion. This is the first official price tag for the cost of the conflict, the English-language website Radio Liberty reported.
Jules Gerst, currently the Pentagon’s chief financial officer, told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee on 29 April that the bulk of the funding was spent on munitions.
The United States began its attacks on Iran on 28 February, with both sides currently maintaining a fragile ceasefire.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Iran made an offer to open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the lifting of the naval blockade by the US military, but US government officials reportedly did not accept the offer.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explicitly called the offer unacceptable.
In Iran, officials are often silent on the matter, but recent media discussions have raised the issue that lifting the naval blockade should be a precondition for negotiating any agreement with the United States, while the Iranian government’s resistance to dismantling Tehran’s nuclear programme has been cited as one of the main obstacles that led to the failure of Iran-US talks.