Iran puts initial war damage at $270bn, warns costs not final

Iran has put its preliminary war losses at $270bn, though a government spokeswoman cautioned that the figure is only an initial estimate and the final cost is likely to be higher.

Fatemeh Mohajerani gave the estimate in an interview with Russia’s RIA Novosti agency, the Iranian Tasnim news agency said.

“One of the issues that our negotiating team is pursuing and was also pursued in the Islamabad talks is the issue of war reparations. Damages usually have to be examined in several layers. Iran’s losses from US and Israeli attacks are currently estimated at around $270bn,” she said.

However, according to one estimate, a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz will cost Iran approximately $435 million a day, including $276 million in lost exports, mostly of crude oil and petrochemicals. Miad Maleki, analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies research group, based his estimate on Iran exporting 1.5 million barrels of oil a day at a wartime price of about $87 a barrel, and assumed more than 90% of the oil transits through Kharg Island, inside the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, military escalation in the Middle East could cause output losses of between $97 billion and $299 billion in the Asia Pacific, due to rising costs for transportation, electricity and food, according to an estimate from the United Nations Development Programme.

Source: Al Jazeera, CNN, Wall Street Journal