The Obama administration will restore security aid to Bahrain, the key American military ally in the Middle East that has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State militants and houses a major U.S. naval base across the Persian Gulf from Iran. The renewal comes even though the State Department says human rights remain inadequate in the kingdom following the regime’s 2011 crackdown on Arab Spring demonstrators which led to the U.S. ban.

Though Washington and Manama have maintained strong military-to-military ties throughout three years of reduced aid, the full restoration shows how the U.S. puts a premium on defense relations. Bahrain has hosted since 1946 the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, a military command that oversees American ships in the Middle East. About 7,000 Americans are based there, including the forward headquarters of U.S. Marines in the region.

But the U.S. will not yet resume aid to the regime’s interior ministry.

“[W]e believe it is important to recognize that the government of Bahrain has made some meaningful progress on human rights reforms and reconciliation,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Monday.

Kirby pointed to Bahrain’s “recent release of a number of prisoners charged with crimes related to their political association and expression.”