The 20 years of conflict has cost the Middle East region 12 trillion U.S. dollars during the period from 1991 to 2010, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported on Sunday quoting an Indian report.
The report was published in a book entitled “The Cost of Conflict in the Middle East” by the Strategic Foresight Group in India and translated by the Institute for Peace Studies of Egypt.
The Middle East region afforded a high record of military expenses in the past 20 years and is considered the most armed region in the world, the report said.
The conflict had a negative effect on the Palestinians. The death toll from the conflict has increased to 4,000 Palestinians since 2000, while the number of people living under poverty line has risen to more than one million since 2006, the report said.
The report added that 42 percent of Palestinian families were barred from health care facilities due to the segregating walls that divide their lands.
Countries in the region could have reached a 6 percent growth of its national domestic production, but they failed due to the lack of political stability, it added.