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The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross has described the Iran war as a “double devastation conflict” where the immediate effects on a population are followed by the long-term cost of recovery.
Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, in an exclusive interview, said: “Once you've run out of military targets, wars turn into wars against civilian infrastructure.” The psychological impact on civilians is just as destructive as the physical chaos, she said, as an increase in asymmetrical warfare has grown “exponentially” over the past 15 years
“If the escalation doesn’t stop, the damage increases. The hope in recovery will decrease,” Ms Egger said. “So, people are going to ask themselves: where am I safe? Where can I go? And look at global migration flows. They are already surpassing anything we have seen in previous decades.”
She tells On the Record with Hadley Gamble that the desensitisation of people and numbness to conflict is even more dangerous.
“We don't look at war any more as the last resort,” she said. “We have moved to a culture where war is considered a political state that can be employed at any given moment in a given context.
“I have not seen any improvement in any of the regions that we operate in, and today we are operating in every region of the world.”
Operating globally for more than 160 years, the ICRC has seen its share of armed conflict. While the organisation is apolitical, Ms Egger says its mandate to uphold international humanitarian law is increasingly difficult to fulfil.
“Everybody is investing in war. Everybody is investing in defence,” she said, referring to the billions of dollars recently committed by European capitals.
“I'm not questioning that. We are not a peace organisation. But the moment you invest, you enter a higher possibility of being involved in a conflict.”
The global military build-up, triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, includes trillions of dollars committed to defence. However, Ms Egger believes that this investment is misguided without corresponding humanitarian preparedness.
“You can never assume that military preparedness will protect your people. The moment you invest in military preparedness, you have to invest in humanitarian preparedness,” she said.
As conflicts escalate, civilians are paying the price, with drones and cheap technology causing disproportionate damage.
“Wars turn immediately against the civilians,” she said. “Where do they shelter? How do you ensure that they will always have access to water? How do you ensure that your health system will not collapse?
“The American President [Donald Trump] speaks of peace, and that must give us hope,” Ms Egger said. “I hope that there will be peace, and anyone who can influence the situation, we will provide the support we can within our mandate to promote peace. And that includes the US, but that includes every country around the globe because they are all state parties to the Geneva Conventions.
“They all agreed at some point, on the rubble of the Second World War, that there will never be a war led without rules. And I want all state leaders to come back to this notion and then start working within that framework on something that all parties agree will lead to a de-escalation.”
