WASHINGTON, Safar 10, 1436, December 02, 2014, SPA -- A funding crisis has forced the World Food Program to suspend assistance to 1.7 million Syrian refugees, the U.N. agency announced, warning that “many families will go hungry” without the aid. The program, which provides electronic vouchers for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt to buy food at local stores, faces a $64 million shortfall, the agency said, attributing the problem to “unfulfilled” donor commitments. “The suspension of WFP food assistance will be disastrous for many already suffering families,” Ertharin Cousin, the agency’s executive director, said in a statement. She called for an immediate resumption of funding and warned that the food-aid suspension will “endanger the health and safety of these refugees and will potentially cause further tensions, instability and insecurity in the neighboring host countries.” --SPA 12:16 LOCAL TIME 09:16 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w