U.S. military spending on the war with Iran has already exceeded the United Nations' entire 2026 humanitarian aid appeal, with funds that could support more than 87 million people, a senior aid official said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Defense says it has spent $25 billion so far on the conflict in the Middle East, while the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sought $23 billion for this year's aid appeal.
"I know what we could do with 25 billion," OCHA head Tom Fletcher told AFP. "We have a direct comparison of what we can do with that money."
The OCHA appeal target is "less than 1% of what the world is spending on guns and arms and defense in the coming year," he added.
Fletcher said the war and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz have doubled fuel prices and driven up food costs by 20%.
