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| The funeral of Mohammad Taha Jafari, who lost his life in the bombing of Shajarat al-Tayyiba Primary School, is held in Minab, Iran, on 30 March 2026. Photograph: Hamid Vakili/Anadolu via Getty Images |
US spending on ‘reckless’ Iran war could have saved 87m lives, says UN
Head of UN’s humanitarian agency frustrated that $2bn weekly cost of conflict comes amid big cuts to aid budgets
The $2bn (£1.5bn) a week that Donald Trump was spending on his reckless war in Iran could have funded saving more than 87 million lives, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency, Tom Fletcher, said on Monday.
He also warned the normalisation of violent language, such as threatening to bomb Iran back to the stone ages, was very dangerous since it encourages every “wannabe autocrat” to use similar threats and tactics, including the destruction of civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Speaking at Chatham House in London, Fletcher, a former UK diplomat and adviser on foreign policy to successive prime ministers, also accused British politicians of forming a circular firing squad for more than 10 years which has left the UK in a “defensive crouch”.
The scale of the recent UK aid cuts had been so severe that people giggle at conferences where the UK claims to be thought leaders on the subject, he said, before later adding the judgment might seem harsh.
Fletcher, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator and head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is wrestling with a humanitarian aid funding crisis he described as cataclysmic, amounting to a 50% cut in his budget.
This is driven not just by the US but also by international cuts to overseas aid driven by a mix of ideology and demands from defence budgets.
He said the war in Iran was having a ripple effect across the globe and predicted that, with food and fuel inflation reaching close to 20%, “we will feel the impact for years in sub-Saharan Africa and east Africa pushing way more people into poverty”.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/20/us-spending-on-reckless-iran-war-could-have-saved-87m-lives-says-un