US President Joe Biden and Austin Tice’s household expressed optimism on Sunday in regards to the American journalist’s potential return from Syria, the place he vanished in 2012, following the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad’s authorities.On the White Home, Biden said, “We expect we are able to get him again, however we now have no direct proof of that but.”Tice went lacking close to Damascus throughout Syria’s descent into civil warfare.Jacob Tice, Austin’s youthful brother, knowledgeable The New York Instances: “We’re urging everybody on the bottom to assist us on this distinctive and singular second to search for Austin and to assist us deliver him dwelling. What we do know is that he’s alive and he’s in Syria.”American authorities have constantly maintained that the al-Assad authorities held Tice, regardless of their repeated denials of getting any details about his whereabouts. In line with the FBI, Austin Bennett Tice was kidnapped in Damascus, Syria on August 13, 2012. Austin was a contract journalist and photographer for quite a lot of information organizations together with CBS, The Washington Publish, and The McClatchy Firm. Austin was kidnapped whereas reporting in Daraya, a Damascus Suburb.A senior administration official, talking anonymously as a result of delicate nature of the state of affairs, revealed that the Biden administration has made in depth efforts to safe Tice’s launch by means of direct Syrian contacts and intermediaries.The official famous that the Syrian authorities, beneath al-Assad till his Sunday elimination from energy, had refused to debate Tice’s state of affairs.On Sunday, Biden confirmed their perception that Tice stays alive however emphasised the necessity to “determine the place he’s” earlier than making an attempt any rescue operation.Aside from The Washington Publish, Tice had labored in McClatchy and different information organisations, documenting and dwelling amongst opposition rebels.
