The enduring defeat of ISIS remains a top priority for the United States. The U.S.-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS is leading stabilization efforts that consolidate military gains, restore basic essential services, and enable Syrians to voluntarily and safely return to their homes in Raqqa and other former ISIS strongholds. Assistance includes explosive hazard and rubble removal, providing clean water, rehabilitating electricity networks, and other basic necessities.
Since April, the United States has elicited approximately $300 million in contributions and pledges from Coalition partners to support immediate stabilization and early recovery initiatives in areas liberated from ISIS in northeast Syria, including a generous contribution of $100 million by Saudi Arabia and $50 million by the United Arab Emirates.
As a result of these generous contributions and other factors, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert announced, “the U.S. will redirect 230 million dollars in stabilization funds for Syria which have been under review.”
“This decision does not represent any lessening of U.S. commitment to our strategic goals in Syria,” stressed Ms. Nauert. President Donald Trump has made clear that the U.S. is prepared to remain in Syria until the enduring defeat of ISIS, and the U.S. remains focused on ensuring the withdrawal of Iranian forces and their proxies. “We believe,” said Ms. Nauert, “that neither of these events will happen without irreversible progress toward a political resolution of the conflict in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2254.”
This decision does not affect U.S. humanitarian assistance. The United States is the largest single country humanitarian donor for the Syria response, providing more than $8.6 billion in humanitarian assistance since the start of the crisis for those displaced inside Syria and the region.
The U.S. will also continue to work with its international partners towards the achievement of a peaceful resolution of the Syrian conflict under an UN-led political process. The Syrian people deserve a country free of war, human rights abuses, and terrorism.
