Blinken says US is ‘engaged with Syria’ in efforts to free missing journalist Austin Tice

The United States is “engaged with Syria, engaged with 3rd nations” to attempt to bring apprehended reporter Austin Tice house, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated Wednesday.

” We are thoroughly engaged with regard to Austin, engaged with Syria, engaged with 3rd nations, looking for to discover a method to get him house. And we’re not going to relent till we do,” Blinken stated in remarks at a Washington Post occasion on World Press Flexibility Day.

Tice was hijacked in Syria in 2012. President Joe Biden stated in 2015 that the United States federal government understands “with certainty that he has actually been held by the Syrian routine” and contacted Damascus to work together on efforts to launch him.

The federal government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has not openly acknowledged they are apprehending Tice. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with the Syrian routine and has actually voiced opposition to rapprochement with Assad.

Blinken did not supply information about the engagements to bring Tice house. White Home and State Department authorities would not verify a report from the Wall Street Journal that United States authorities had actually held talks with Syrian authorities in Oman.

” We can not verify any particular conferences past or present. As you understand in basic conferences and settlements to protect the release of wrongfully apprehended Americans, that is extremely delicate,” White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated at a White Home rundown. “We wish to be actually, actually cautious and conscious and do not wish to verify any particular discussion from the previous or in today.”.

CNN reported last August that the Biden administration had direct engagements with the Syrian federal government in an effort to protect Tice’s release. In 2020 under the Trump administration, Unique Governmental Envoy for Captive Affairs Roger Carstens privately took a trip to Damascus and consulted with Assad routine authorities.

Austin Tice’s mom Debra Tice informed CNN Monday that she believes that the administration is dedicated to bringing her kid house however “they stumble over what requires to be done.” She stated she believed that her kid would stroll totally free.

Biden commemorated Austin Tice and other wrongfully apprehended Americans, consisting of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in Russia, in remarks at the White Home Reporters’ Supper on Saturday.

A variety of relative of wrongfully apprehended Americans– a lot of whom have actually signed up with forces in a company called the “Bring Our Households House” project– in addition to those who had actually been devoid of detention collected in Washington, DC, today to look for a conference with the president and contact the United States federal government to do more to protect the release of their liked ones.

” Although our liked ones are wrongfully apprehended and imprisoned abroad, consisting of China, consisting of Russia, consisting of Iran, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela, our voices are more powerful together,” stated Harrison Li, the kid of Kai Li, who is apprehended in China.

” Although each case has its own peculiarities, all of us require the exact same things: for President Biden to consult with us, and to utilize all tools to bring them home,” he stated.

” We have actually requested a conference with the president for so long now that I honestly do not understand how else to ask or what else to state,” Hannah Sharghi, whose daddy Emad Shargi is apprehended in Iran, stated at a press conference Wednesday.