The war waged by the United States in Iran has so far cost 29 billion dollars, a high-ranking Pentagon official declared on Tuesday, quoted by Reuters. The amount is 4 billion dollars higher than the estimate presented at the end of last month.
With just six months ahead of the midterm elections, where President Donald Trump’s Republicans could struggle to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats are gaining ground in opinion polls and are trying to link the costs of the war to issues related to the standard of living.
On April 29, the Pentagon announced that the war had cost up to that point 25 billion dollars.
Jules Hurst, who exercises the duties of the Pentagon’s financial controller, told lawmakers on Tuesday that the new estimate includes updated costs for repairing and replacing equipment, as well as operational expenses.
“The Joint Chiefs of Staff team and the budget responsible team are constantly analyzing this estimate,” Hurst declared.
He spoke alongside the American Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.
It is not clear how the Pentagon arrived at the figure of 29 billion dollars. A source told Reuters in March that the Trump administration estimated the first six days of the war cost at least 11.3 billion dollars.