AMMAN/WASHINGTON (Archyde.com) – Syria denied on Wednesday the kidnapping or detention of an American journalist who disappeared 10 years ago after US President Joe Biden demanded that Damascus allow him to return home.
Austin Tice, a 31-year-old former US Marine and freelance journalist, was kidnapped in August 2012 while covering the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.
His family believes he is alive and still being held in Syria. The identity of Tice’s kidnappers remains unknown, and no group has claimed responsibility for his kidnapping.
On Wednesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry described Tice as a US soldier and denied that the government had detained him or any other American.
“These allegations are misleading and far from reasonable,” she said in a statement.
In a statement marking the 10th anniversary of Tice’s arrest, Biden said last Wednesday that his administration “has repeatedly asked the Syrian government to work with us so we can bring Austin home.”
Biden added that Washington knows “with certainty” that the Syrian government has held Tice at times.
Washington suspended its diplomatic presence in Syria in 2012 at the start of the country’s civil war.
There was no comment yet from the US State Department on the Syrian government’s statement.
Biden met Tice’s parents at the White House in early May and told them he would work “relentlessly” for his return. Efforts to secure his release appear to have rebounded since then.
In June, Lebanon’s intelligence chief, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, said US officials wanted him to resume efforts to bring Tice home and that he would visit Syria for talks on the issue.
In an interview with Public Security magazine, the official publication of his agency, Ibrahim said that in previous talks with Damascus over TICE, Syria had raised demands related to the withdrawal of US forces, the resumption of diplomatic relations and the lifting of some US sanctions.
On Monday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated Washington’s calls for Syria to ensure Tice and every US citizen held in Syria are repatriated.
“In terms of our efforts to seek the safe return of Austin, we are communicating extensively, and this includes direct communication, with Syrian officials and through third parties,” he said, declining to elaborate.
The families of the hostages and detainees have begun to collectively raise their voices urging Biden to prioritize the issue and take steps such as arranging more prisoner exchanges with foreign governments.