By Jana Choukeir
DUBAI (Reuters) – The mom of American journalist Austin Tice stated on Monday she was hopeful that the brand new administrations within the U.S. and Syria would assist her discover her lacking son, who was taken captive throughout a reporting journey close to Damascus about 12 years in the past.
“Today, January 20, President (Donald) Trump will be sworn into office and I have great hope that his administration will work to bring Austin home,” Debra Tice informed a press convention in Damascus organized by the NGO Hostage Help Worldwide.
She additionally stated she was inspired as a result of officers within the new U.S. authorities had already reached out to her about her lacking son.
Tice has criticised outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, saying they didn’t negotiate arduous sufficient for her son’s launch, even in latest months.
Tice, who labored as a contract reporter for the Washington Submit and different publications, was one of many first U.S. journalists to make it into Syria after the outbreak of the civil battle in 2011.
She visited in 2015 to satisfy Syrian authorities about her son, earlier than they stopped granting her visas.
The overthrow of veteran chief Bashar al-Assad in December by Syrian rebels has allowed her to go to once more from her house in Texas.
Tice added that on Sunday she met Syria’s new leaders, who she stated demonstrated a “dedication” to convey her son again. “The new administration knows what we’re going through and they’re trying to make things right for people like us,” she stated.
Nevertheless, Tice stated that the ousting of Assad on Dec. 8 had difficult the seek for her son, because it made it tougher to know the place her son is held and by whom.
“It’s like we’ve reached the beginning again,” she stated.
“It was more than 12 years ago that I haven’t been able to see him or talk to him but I know he’s here. Austin if you can somehow hear this I love you. I know you’re not giving up and neither am I,” she added.
The U.S. State Division final week stated there isn’t any U.S. authorities group at the moment on the bottom in Syria to participate within the seek for Tice.
Tice had been the topic of a large-scale search following the ousting of Assad after 13 years of civil battle in December.
U.S. officers have expressed issues that Tice might have been killed in latest Israeli airstrikes or may have suffocated after Assad’s forces lower off energy to prisons in Damascus earlier than his departure.
He was captured within the Damascus suburb of Daraya. Reuters reported earlier that in 2013 Tice, a former Marine, managed to slide out of his cell and was seen transferring between homes within the streets of Damascus’ upscale Mazzeh neighborhood.
He was recaptured quickly after his escape, doubtless by forces who answered on to Assad, present and former U.S. officers stated. Syrian authorities by no means confirmed that Tice was of their custody. The New York Occasions (NYSE:) first reported that temporary escape and recapture.
Tens of 1000’s of Syrian prisoners walked out of Assad’s prisons after his oppressive rule ended.
