Marc and Debra Tice, the parents of US journalist Austin Tice (portrait L), who was abducted in Syria more than six years ago, give a press conference in the Lebanese capital Beirut on December 4, 2018. They said they were very encouraged by the level of cooperation of US President Donald Trump's administration and new information about their son's fate. Tice, 37, disappeared in August 2012 near Damascus and his whereabouts remain a mystery. But Trump's special envoy for hostage affairs, Robert O'Brien, said last month there was every reason to believe the journalist was alive and still detained in Syria.
Image: AFP / JOSEPH EID
The United States on Monday vowed to make all efforts to bring back journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, with a US envoy heading to the region after strongman Bashar al-Assad's overthrow.
Roger Carstens, the US special envoy on hostage affairs, has arrived in nearby Beirut on a mission to find information on Tice, US officials said.
"With every party we engage, we'll continue to seek information about Austin Tice so that we can find him and bring him home to his family and loved ones," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an event at the State Department.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of Carstens's visit that the United States was ready to "engage with any organisation that might have information about the whereabouts of Austin Tice."
"As Secretary Blinken has said directly to Austin's family, including in the past few days, we will not rest until he is returned home safely to his loved ones," Miller told reporters.
He said that anyone with information on Tice's whereabouts should contact the FBI and was eligible for a reward.
Tice's mother, Debra Tice, said Friday that she had information from the US government that her son is alive and being "treated well."
Tice is a freelance photojournalist who was working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other news organisations when he was detained at a checkpoint in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, on August 14, 2012.
Little information has been made public since his abduction. He appeared blindfolded in a video in September 2012, when he was 31, but the identity of the kidnappers remains unknown to this day.
In 2022, President Joe Biden accused Syria of holding Tice and called on its then government to help secure his release.
Assad fled the country over the weekend after a lightning assault by rebels ended a half-century of his family's iron-fisted rule.
AFP