WEST ASIA — Military expenditure in the Middle East reached $218 billion in 2025, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Saudi Arabia's military spending rose to $83.2 billion in 2025 and Turkey's grew to $30 billion that same year, SIPRI reported.

The figures were released as states across the region absorbed the costs of overlapping conflicts. Israel's Finance Ministry estimated the war with Iran at $11.5 billion in budgetary expenses, and damage to the Israeli economy could reach nearly $3 billion a week under wartime restrictions.

The Pentagon's comptroller told lawmakers that the Iran operation had cost about $25 billion. Israel's confrontation with Iran included cyber operations, targeted assassinations and repeated strikes on Iranian-linked positions in Syria and across the region.

In April 2024, Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel after Israel struck Iran's consulate in Damascus. That exchange was one of several direct military episodes between the two countries in the years preceding the 2025 spending figures.

The conflict in Gaza has produced a heavy civilian toll. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Gaza health authorities, reported that 72,344 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and April 15, 2026.

Maritime security has also been disrupted in the region. The Houthis carried out Red Sea attacks that disrupted global trade and forced shipping firms to reroute vessels around southern Africa.

Gulf states have responded by broadening their conception of security, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates increasingly see national security as extending beyond physical borders to airspace, territorial waters and maritime trade routes, Carnegie noted. As part of security hedging, the Gulf states have pursued ties with China, cooperation with Russia, regional partnerships and development of domestic defense industries, according to Carnegie.