BREAKING: Trump's Iran War Having DEVASTATING Effect Worldwide
The United States joined Israel in launching military strikes on Iran earlier this year. Months into the conflict, the toll on children across the region has been devastating.
At the same time his administration was waging that war, Trump was slashing funding to the U.N. agency tasked with protecting the children caught in it.
The Death Toll
Damage to 442 health facilities across Iran is disrupting access to essential healthcare for an estimated 10 million people, including 2.2 million children, according to Iran’s Ministry of Health and the Iranian Red Crescent. Over 760 schools have reportedly been destroyed or damaged.
This weekend’s military escalation in the Middle East marked a dangerous moment for millions of children in the region, with reports of strikes hitting a girls’ school in Minab in Hormozgan province in southern Iran. Scores of students were reportedly killed and many others injured.
Iranian state media said an airstrike hit a girls’ school in southern Iran, killing at least 165 people and wounding dozens more. The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area.
The missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh School in Iran on the first day of the war killed 168 girls and boys. Children have also been killed or injured in Bahrain, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait and Lebanon.
More than 340 children have reportedly been killed and thousands injured across the region, including 216 killed and 1,767 injured in Iran alone.
International Law Concerns
International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacking civilian infrastructure indispensable for the survival of children. Hospitals and medical services are under increasing strain, with disruptions affecting the delivery of critical care.
UNICEF has echoed the call of the U.N. Secretary-General for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation, and has urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint.
Melania Trump’s Visit to the UN
First lady Melania Trump presided over a U.N. Security Council meeting focused on children in conflict, one of her signature issues, acknowledging she was doing so in “challenging times” as the United States joined Israel in attacking Iran. “The U.S. stands with all of the children throughout the world,” she said, speaking generally and not specifically about the new war in the Middle East. “I hope soon peace will be yours.”
U.N. Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo told the council the world is facing the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II. “The number of civilians killed in these conflicts is the highest in decades,” she said. “Our reality is clear: When conflicts erupt, children are among those most severely affected.”
The first lady spoke about protecting children in conflict zones. Her husband’s administration was actively engaged in the conflict producing the casualties DiCarlo was describing.
At the Same Time, Trump Cut Funding to UNICEF
Here is where the story becomes about more than one war.
The U.S. has dramatically cut funding for the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, and has withdrawn from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.
The same administration prosecuting a war that has killed hundreds of children and damaged hundreds of schools and health facilities has simultaneously reduced funding to the agency whose job is documenting and responding to exactly that kind of harm.
The Toll Is Spreading Beyond the Middle East
The consequences of the war are not confined to the region where it is being fought.
“Children are paying the price for the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including children far beyond the region,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “The longer this continues, the worse the consequences will be.”
In Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria, one mother’s youngest child was diagnosed with malnutrition for a second time in April. The family’s situation deteriorated after February, when her husband lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran.
The war in Iran has worsened poverty and food insecurity in northern Nigeria by driving up fuel prices, causing job losses, and making it harder for families to afford nutritious food, according to local health and aid workers. UNICEF is warning that millions more children in Africa and Asia could fall into poverty if the conflict continues.
A war launched in the Middle East is now contributing to child malnutrition on another continent, through fuel prices alone.
The Bottom Line
The United States is engaged in a war that has killed hundreds of children, destroyed hundreds of schools, and damaged the hospitals that families depend on. Its ripple effects are now driving malnutrition in children thousands of miles away, in Nigeria.
At the same time, the Trump administration cut funding to UNICEF, the U.N. agency built specifically to respond to children in crises like this one, and withdrew from UNESCO entirely.
The first lady stood before the Security Council and said the United States stands with children throughout the world. The administration’s budget decisions, and its war, tell a different story.