DAMASCUS: The Syrian government has denied holding any American nationals captive, including journalist Austin Tice who was abducted 10 years ago near the capital Damascus.
Syria’s foreign ministry issued a statement on Wednesday in response to United States President Joe Biden’s claims last week that he knew “with certainty” that Tice “has been held by the Syrian regime”, and called on Damascus to help bring him home.
The foreign ministry denied Biden’s accusation, describing it as “baseless allegations”. “The Syrian Arab Republic denies that it has kidnapped or forcibly disappeared any American citizen who entered its territory or resided in areas under its authority,” the statement said.
The ministry also said that the US had violated consular and diplomatic relations by encouraging US citizens to enter Syria without permission, and that Damascus would only accept “official dialogue or communication with the American administration if the talks are public and premised on a respect for Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”.
Tice, a former Marine, was a freelance photojournalist working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other news organisations when he disappeared after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012.
He was aged 31 at the time he went missing. He later appeared blindfolded in the custody of an unidentified group of armed men in a video released a month later but there has been little news of him since.
Biden’s statement on his whereabouts came on the 10th anniversary of Tice’s disappearance. “There is no higher priority in my administration than the recovery and return of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said.
The previous US administration under former US President Donald Trump sent a White House official on a rare mission to Damascus in 2020, aiming to seek Tice’s freedom. That mission yielded no visible results. –Agencies
