Trump administration is stopping funding for reconstruction efforts
The State Department is sharply stopping funding to rebuild parts of Syria it took back from the Islamic State, canceling $230 million in planned spending it now says will be paid for by other countries, officials said Friday.
Most of the U.S. money was announced in January by then-secretary of state Rex Tillerson to “stabilize” areas such as the Syrian city of Raqqa, which largely was destroyed by U.S. airstrikes and proxy combat on the ground in a major offensive that ousted the Islamic State last year.
The spending was frozen in March, after Tillerson was fired, as part of President Donald Trump’s effort to hasten American withdrawal from Syria and turn more responsibility over to members of the U.S.-led coalition. The administration informed Congress on Friday that the money would be “redirected” away from Syria to other, unspecified areas.
Commitments from other countries total $300 million, according to State Department officials, including $100 million announced this week by Saudi Arabia.
The funding announcement came as Syria’s dual wars — the civil conflict to overthrow President Bashar Assad and the separate fight against the Islamic State — increasingly overlapped and moved into new phases.
Assad, aided by Russia and Iran, has claimed victory over Syrian opposition fighters — once backed by the United States and others — in most of the western two-thirds of the country. Russia has spearheaded an international campaign to declare Assad firmly in power and persuade the rest of the world to solidify the peace by paying to reconstruct the country and repatriate the millions of Syrians who fled the fighting.
The United States, declaring near-victory over the Islamic State in the eastern third of Syria, has said it will spearhead — but not pay for — initial stabilization of the territory it now oversees, including demining and restoration of basic services such as water and electricity.
Long-term reconstruction of the country, devastated