Debra Tice, mother of journalist Austin Tice, imprisoned since 2012 in Syria, hoped to meet with the new Syrian authorities, including the head of its new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to obtain information about her son.
The mother of the American journalist Austin Ticewho was taken prisoner during a reporting trip to Syria in August 2012, arrived in Damascus to intensify the search for his son and said he hopes to bring him home.
Tice, who worked as a freelance journalist for Washington Post and McClatchy, was one of the first American journalists to arrive in Syria after the outbreak of the civil war.
His mother, Debra Tice, arrived in the Syrian capital from Lebanon with Nizar Zakka, the head of Hostage Aid Worldwide, an organization that is searching for Austin and believes he is still in Syria.
“It would be wonderful to hug Austin while I'm here. It would be the best,” Debra Tice told Reuters Saturday in the Syrian capital, which he last visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about his son, before they stopped granting him visas.
The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December by Syrian rebels has allowed him to revisit the country from his home in Texas.
“I feel very strongly that Austin is here, and I think he knows I'm here… I'm here,” she said.
Debra Tice and Zakka hope to meet with Syria's new authorities, including the head of its new administration, Ahmed al-Sharaa, to obtain information about Austin. They are also optimistic that US President-elect Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated on Monday, will take up the cause.
“I hope to get some answers. And, of course, you know, we have the investiture on Mondayand I think that should be a big change,” he said.
“I know that President Trump is a great negotiator, so I have a lot of confidence in him. But now we have a stranger on this (Syrian) side. It is difficult to know if those who come have information about him,” he said.
His son, now 43, was taken prisoner in August 2012 while traveling through the Damascus suburb of Daraya.
Reuters It previously reported that in 2013 Tice, a former Marine, managed to sneak out of his cell and was seen moving between houses on the streets of Damascus's exclusive Mazzeh neighborhood. The New York Times He was the first to report on that brief escape and recapture.
He was recaptured shortly after his escape, likely by forces reporting directly to Assad, current and former U.S. officials said.
Debra Tice came to Syria in 2012 and 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities, who never confirmed that Tice was in their custody, both she and Zakka said.
He criticized the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden and said they did not negotiate enough for his son's release, even in recent months.
“We certainly felt that President Biden was very well positioned to do everything he could to bring Austin home, right? I mean, this was the end of his career. It would be a wonderful thing for him to do. So, we had an expectation “He pardoned his own son, didn't he? So where is my son?”
Debra Tice said her “mind was spinning” as she crossed the Lebanese border into Syria and her eyes filled with tears as she spoke of the tens of thousands of people whose loved ones were being held in Assad's notorious prison system and whose fate remains. being unknown.
“I have a lot in common with a lot of Syrian mothers and families, and just thinking about how this is affecting them: Do they have the same hope as me, that they're going to open a door, that they're going to see their loved one?”