US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says that Syria’s regime has not revealed all it knows about two missing Americans despite a rare visit by a US official.
Despite the absence of diplomatic relations, a US official visited Damascus in August to seek the freedom of journalist Austin Tice and Syrian-American Majd Kamalmaz, The Wall Street Journal first reported on Sunday.
“Our ask is that the Syrians release Mr. Tice — they tell us what they know. They have chosen not to do that so far,” Pompeo tells reporters when asked about the mission by the White House official, Kash Patel.
“We are continuing to work for the return not only of Austin but of every American that’s held,” Pompeo says.
Austin Tice (screen capture: YouTube)
Tice was a freelance photojournalist working for Agence France-Presse, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS and other news organizations when he disappeared after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012.
Thirty-one years old at the time he was captured, Tice appeared blindfolded in the custody of an unidentified group of armed men in a video a month later.
Since then, there has been no official information on whether he is alive or dead.
— AFP
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