The U.S. Government’s top hostage negotiator is in Beirut in hopes of collecting information on the whereabouts of Austin Tice, an American journalist missing in Syria for 12 years, the State Department said on Monday (December 10, 2024).
Syria denies it is holding American journalist Austin Tice
Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, is talking to officials in the region following the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s Government to find out where Mr. Tice is and “get him home as soon as possible”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told the reporters on Monday (Dec. 10).
Lebanon has been involved for years in mediating talks about Mr. Tice. President Joe Biden said on Sunday (Dec. 9) that his administration believed Mr. Tice was alive and was committed to bringing him home, though he also acknowledged that “we have no direct evidence” of his status.
Mr. Tice, who has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers, and others, disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus as the Syrian civil war intensified.
A video released weeks after Mr. Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that they was holding him.
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