Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) issued the following statement after the president released approximately $6.6 million in frozen funds for the White Helmets and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism in Syria:

“I am glad the president has released vital funding to the White Helmet volunteers, who are providing life-saving aid to thousands of Syrian civilians, and international investigators collecting evidence of the Assad regime’s war crimes. But these funds represent just a portion of what is needed to secure vital U.S. interests in Syria. I urge the administration to resume stabilization funding to provide relief to suffering Syrian men, women and children, and help check Iran’s malign influence.”

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