Trump eyes Arab help for Iran war costs

Gulf states 'unified' in calling for war de-escalation, says Qatar

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FE Team | Published: March 31, 2026 22:40:56

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NEW YORK, Mar 31 (Reuters/AFP): US President Donald Trump is interested in calling on Arab countries to pay for the cost of the Iran war, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, adding talks with Tehran to end the conflict are progressing well.
Leavitt, asked at a news briefing whether Arab countries would step up to help pay for the war, said she would not get ahead of the Republican president but that it was an idea that Trump had.
"I think it's something the President would be quite interested in calling them to do," Leavitt said.
"It's an idea that I know that he has and something that I think you'll hear more from him on."
Leavitt said that what Tehran says publicly differs from what it tells US officials in private and that Iran had privately agreed to some of Washington's points.
"Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well. What is said publicly is, of course, much different than what's being communicated to us privately," Leavitt said.
Trump earlier on Monday warned that Iran's energy plants and oil wells would be obliterated if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, after Tehran described US peace proposals as "unrealistic" and fired waves of missiles at Israel.
Trump has said that negotiations with Tehran were going well and suggested that "regime change" in Iran is complete.
"We've had regime change, if you look, already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people," Trump told reporters on Sunday.
"So I would consider that regime change, and frankly, they've been very reasonable."
The Gulf states are unified in calling for a de-escalation of the Middle East war, Qatar said Tuesday as Tehran launched new strikes against its neighbours.
"Our understanding is that there is a very unified position in the Gulf on calling for the de-escalation and an end to the war," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a regular news briefing.
Explosion heard near
Iraq's Erbil airport
An explosion was heard Tuesday morning near the international airport of Erbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, an AFP journalist said.
Iraq has been drawn into the broader Middle East war that started with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
Pro-Iran armed groups have claimed responsibility for attacks on US interests in Iraq and across the region, while strikes have also targeted the groups.
EU chief urges Iran president to 'engage'
on opening of Hormuz
EU chief Antonio Costa on Tuesday urged Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian in a phone call to stop attacks on regional neighbours and engage with diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"To de-escalate the situation, I urged Iran to stop the unacceptable attacks on countries in the region and to engage positively on the diplomatic track, notably with the UN to ensure the freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz," European Council president Costa wrote on X.