The Pentagon’s spending on its war with Iran could cover the UN’s entire 2026 aid appeal and bring lifesaving support to more than 87 million people, its aid chief tells AFP.

The US Department of War 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) has sought $23bn for this year’s aid appeal.

“I know what we could do with 25bn,” OCHA head Tom Fletcher tells AFP. “We have a direct comparison of what we can do with that money.”

The OCHA appeal target is “less than one per cent of what the world is spending on guns and arms and defence in the coming year,” he adds.

Fletcher says the war, and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has doubled fuel prices and driven up food costs by 20pc.

“That makes our job much harder. But it also pushes more people into hunger and starvation,” he says.