US ‘directly engaged’ with Syrian officials on Austin Tice case
Al JazeeraState Department spokesman renews pledge to secure return of US journalist believed to be held by Syrian government. The United States has “directly engaged” with Syrian officials on the detention of US journalist Austin Tice, a spokesman for the US Department of State said, as the Biden administration renewed its pledge to secure Tice’s safe return to the country. “We have engaged extensively, and that includes directly with Syrian officials and through third parties,” spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday afternoon, without specifying what level of US-Syrian state contact had been made. “We are going to pursue every avenue for securing Austin’s safe return to Debra and Marc and to his entire family.” US President Joe Biden said last week that his administration knew with “certainty” that Tice, who was abducted in the Syrian capital Damascus in August 2012, was being held by Syria’s government. “Tice’s family deserve answers, and so do the families of tens of thousands of others who have been kidnapped, arbitrarily detained, and forcibly disappeared by the Syrian government, armed anti-government groups, and extremist armed groups like the Islamic State,” Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin also wrote on Monday.