Testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said Arab nations have offered a “quite significant” sum to pay for American military strikes against Syria. He said there was an offer on the table to pay for the full cost even if the United States acted unilaterally.
“With respect to Arab countries offering to bear the cost and to assist, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “That offer is on the table.”
Kerry said some Arab nations have “said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost. That’s how dedicated they are to this.”
“Obviously, that is not in the cards and nobody is talking about it, but they are talking about taking seriously getting this job done,” Kerry said.
Later, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the cost of military action would cost “tens of millions” of dollars and declined to answer a question from Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) about whether a supplemental authorization would be needed after the beginning of airstrikes. The cost of a cruise missile is reportedly between $500,000 to $1.5 million.
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