United States.- President Joe Biden met on Monday with the parents of the American journalist austin ticwho was kidnapped in Syria nearly 10 years ago, the White House said.
“During their meeting, the president reiterated his commitment to continue working through all available avenues to ensure the return of Austin with his family, which has been long overdue,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement summarizing the meeting with Marc and Debra Tice.
She described the encounter as a consequence of “multiple meetings and conversations” between the Tice family and White House national security officials.
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Debra Tice was featured Saturday night as an attendee at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, where Biden he paid tribute in his comments to journalists who had disappeared or were detained. Biden also said at the event that he wanted to meet with Tice to talk about your son.
“After the president made those comments, we obviously jumped into action to work to set up the meeting,” Psaki said Monday, adding that the White House “has been very engaged with the family.”
Tice who is from Houston and whose work had been published by The Washington Post, the McClatchy newspapers and other outlets, disappeared in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a disputed area west of Damascus.
A video posted weeks later showed him blindfolded and held up by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria He has never admitted to having it.
In the closing months of the Trump administration, two US officials, including the administration’s top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, paid a secret visit to Damascus to search for information on Tice and other Americans missing in Syria.
It was the highest-level conversation in years between the United States and the government of the Syrian President Bashar Assadalthough Syrian officials did not offer significant information about Tice.
Psaki told reporters earlier in the day that there were multiple meetings between members of the Tice family and administration officials in the past six months, including one last week.
Debra Tice had previously criticized his lack of direct access to the White House, saying at a National Press Club event last December that he had been unable to meet with Biden ever since he became president and that he had never said Austin’s name publicly.
“The obstacle I have is the White House,” he said then, adding, “I wonder if he has allowed himself to forget about Austin. I have no indication to the contrary.”
Last week, the United States secured the release of Trevor Reed, a US Navy veteran, detained in Russia for nearly three years, as part of a prisoner swap.
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Family members of Reed and other detained Americans will hold a news conference near the White House on Wednesday to advocate for the release of their loved ones.
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