Biden will meet with parents of US journalist abducted in Syria 10 years ago

Joe Biden stated he was assembly on Monday with the dad and mom of American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria 10 years in the past.

The assembly with Marc and Debra Tice was anticipated to happen on the White Home.

Debra Tice was launched in entrance of all these gathered final Saturday evening on the White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation annual dinner, in Washington DC, the place she was in attendance and the place the US president paid tribute in his remarks to journalists who're lacking or detained, in addition to these killed protecting battle.

Biden additionally stated on the occasion that he wished to satisfy with the Tices to discuss their son.

“After the president made these feedback, clearly we went into motion to work to arrange the assembly,” the White Home press secretary, Jen Psaki, stated on Monday, including that the White Home has “been very intently engaged with the household”.

Tice, who's from Houston and whose work had been revealed by the Washington Submit, the McClatchy newspaper group’s publications and different retailers, disappeared in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested space west of Damascus.

A video launched weeks later confirmed him blindfolded and held by armed males and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has by no means acknowledged holding him.

Within the last months of the Trump administration, two US officers – together with the federal government’s prime hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens – made a secret go to to Damascus to hunt info on Tice and different People who've disappeared in Syria.

It was the highest-level assembly in years between the US and the federal government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, though Syrian officers provided no significant info on Tice.

Psaki stated there have been three conferences between members of the Tice household and administration officers since December, when Debra met with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s nationwide safety adviser. The latest one was final week.

Debra Tice has beforehand been important of her lack of direct White Home entry, saying at a Nationwide Press Membership occasion final December that she had by no means met with Biden since he grew to become president and that “he has by no means stated Austin’s title publicly”.

Final week, the US secured the discharge of Trevor Reed, a US marine veteran detained in Russia for practically three years, as a part of a prisoner swap.