Joe Biden believes lacking American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared 12 years in the past close to the Syrian capital, is alive, and stated that Washington is dedicated to bringing him dwelling after Bashar al-Assad’s ousting from energy.
“We think we can get him back,” Biden advised reporters on the White Home on Sunday, whereas acknowledging that “we have no direct evidence” of his standing.
Biden stated officers should nonetheless determine precisely the place Tice is after his disappearance in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested space west of Damascus. “We’ve remained committed to returning him to his family,” he stated.
Tice, who’s from Houston, has had his work printed by the Washington Publish, McClatchy newspapers and different shops.
In a assertion to the Publish, his dad and mom, Marc and Debra Tice on Sunday stated they had been “eagerly anticipating seeing Austin walk free”, including: “We are asking anyone who can do so to please assist Austin so he can safely return home to his family.”
The household stated his location remained unclear, and a US official stated there was no new proof that Tice was alive, however that they continued to function below the idea that he was. The US would proceed to work to determine the place he’s and to attempt to deliver him dwelling, the official added.
On Friday, Debra Tice advised a information convention in Washington that the household had info from a “significant source”, establishing that her son was alive. “He is being cared for and he is well – we do know that,” she stated.
Tice’s sister Naomi Tice stated in an interview with the Publish: “In chaos, there is opportunity. And I think for a lot of us, that’s really what we’re focusing on right now … this is such an opportunity to bring Austin home.”
A video launched weeks after Tice went lacking confirmed him blindfolded and held by armed males and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that it was holding him.
The Tice household met this week with officers on the state division and the White Home.
Mouaz Moustafa from non-profit Syrian Emergency Process Drive advised CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday morning that insurgent teams had been working to search out Tice. “He’s a hero. He went to cover the plight of the Syrian people from what Assad, Iran and Russia have been doing to them. And God willing, we bring him home alive, but we need to find him and bring him to his mom, no matter what. And the Syrians owe him a debt forever,” Moustafa stated.
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