The ongoing war centered on Iran is severely disrupting global energy and fertilizer supplies, potentially pushing more than 30 million people into poverty in the coming months, according to United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) chief Alexander De Croo. In an interview with Reuters, he said that even if the conflict ended immediately, its economic and humanitarian impacts had already begun, warning that food insecurity would soon reach critical levels.

De Croo noted that the crisis has already caused a loss of about 0.5 to 0.8 percent of global GDP, erasing development progress that took decades to achieve. He emphasized that the war’s economic shock is spreading rapidly across vulnerable economies, threatening to reverse hard-won gains in poverty reduction.

Meanwhile, reports from France 24 and PassBlue said UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s proposal to secure fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz has yet to be implemented. Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, stated that Iran would allow ship passage if formally requested by the UN, while the US mission to the UN has not yet responded.