{"id":5779,"date":"2026-03-31T03:36:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/us-says-trump-interested-in-asking-arab-countries-to-pay-for-war-on-iran\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:36:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:36:51","slug":"us-says-trump-interested-in-asking-arab-countries-to-pay-for-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/us-says-trump-interested-in-asking-arab-countries-to-pay-for-war-on-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"US says Trump \u2018interested\u2019 in asking Arab countries to pay for war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt says passing the conflict\u2019s costs off to regional states is \u2018an idea\u2019 that Trump has.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The White House has suggested that US President <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/trump-threatens-to-blow-up-all-desalination-plants-in-iran\">Donald Trump<\/a> will ask Arab countries to cover the cost of the United States\u2019 war against Iran, estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, was asked on Monday whether Arab states should pay for the war, as when US allies helped fund Washington\u2019s intervention during the Gulf War in 1990.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/fire-contained-after-missile-attack-on-oil-refinery-in-israels-haifa\">Fire contained after missile attack on oil refinery in Israel\u2019s Haifa<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/trump-threatens-to-blow-up-all-desalination-plants-in-iran\">Trump threatens to \u2018blow up\u2019 all water desalination plants in Iran<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/two-more-un-peacekeepers-killed-in-southern-lebanon-unifil\">Two more UN peacekeepers killed in explosion in southern Lebanon: UNIFIL<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s something the president would be quite interested in calling them to do,\u201d Leavitt told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t get ahead of him on that, but certainly it\u2019s an idea that I know that he has, and something that I think you\u2019ll hear more from him on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The US led a global coalition of dozens of countries during the Gulf War\u00a0to fend off Iraq\u2019s invasion of Kuwait at the request of the country and several of its Arab neighbours.<\/p>\n<p>In turn, states in the region and coalition members, including Germany and Japan, raised $54bn (the equivalent of $134bn today) to help pay for the US involvement.<\/p>\n<p>This time, however, the US and Israel went to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/liveblog\/2026\/3\/30\/iran-war-live-worker-killed-in-kuwait-israel-intercepts-drones-from-yemen\">war with Iran<\/a> unilaterally without involving their allies and regional countries.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Sean Hannity, a right-wing commentator close to Trump, said any ceasefire deal should include making Iran pay for the cost of the war, which has killed nearly 2,000 Iranians.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey must agree to repay America in oil for the entire cost of this entire military operation,\u201d Hannity said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Iran has set US compensation for war damage as one of its conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has retaliated against US and Israeli strikes with missile and drone attacks across the entire Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>Iranian officials have said they are targeting US assets in the region, but Tehran has launched attacks against <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/iranian-attack-damages-kuwait-power-and-desalination-plant-kills-worker\">civilian sites<\/a>, including hotels, airports and energy infrastructure, in several Gulf countries.<\/p>\n<p>US media outlets reported earlier this month that officials told members of the US Congress in a classified hearing that the first six days of the war cost $11.3bn.<\/p>\n<p>The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the number rose to $16.5bn by day 12 of the conflict. The bill is likely far higher now as the war enters its 31st day.<\/p>\n<p>The White House is seeking at least $200bn in additional military spending from Congress to help fund the military campaign in Iran and replenish the Pentagon\u2019s munition stockpiles.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the immediate price tag for the US military, the war \u2013 which saw Iran close down the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/30\/rubio-tells-al-jazeera-strait-of-hormuz-will-reopen-one-way-or-another\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2013 has sent global energy prices soaring.<\/p>\n<p>The average price of one gallon (3.8 litres) of petrol in the US is now $3.99, according to an American Automobile Association (AAA) tracker, more than $1 higher than before the war started.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Leavitt reiterated the Trump administration\u2019s assertion that the surge in energy prices will be outweighed by the gains of weakening Iran.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe overall message, as we repeatedly stated again: These are short-term actions and short-term price fluctuations for the long-term benefit of ending the threat that Iran poses to the United States of America, our troops and our allies in the region,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Iran argues that it was attacked first in the middle of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/liveblog\/2026\/2\/26\/us-iran-talks-live-nuclear-talks-to-kick-off-in-geneva-amid-tensions\">diplomatic talks<\/a>, and it did not pose a threat to the US or the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt says passing the conflict\u2019s costs off to regional states is \u2018an idea\u2019 that Trump has. The White House has suggested that US President Donald Trump will ask Arab countries to cover the cost of the United States\u2019 war against Iran, estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars. &#8230; <a title=\"US says Trump \u2018interested\u2019 in asking Arab countries to pay for war on Iran\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/us-says-trump-interested-in-asking-arab-countries-to-pay-for-war-on-iran\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about US says Trump \u2018interested\u2019 in asking Arab countries to pay for war on Iran\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}