WASHINGTON _ A senior White House official traveled to Syria over the summer to discuss the release of Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing covering the war there in 2012, a Trump administration official confirmed to McClatchy.
Kash Patel, senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council, visited Damascus to meet with the head of Syria's intelligence agency. The meeting was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Marking the eighth anniversary of Tice's disappearance in August, Trump acknowledged that his administration had been in direct talks with Damascus over his whereabouts and potential release.
"Earlier this year, I asked the government of Syria to work with us to find and return Austin. I am again calling on Syria to help us bring him home," Trump said at that time. "There is no higher priority in my administration than the recovery and return of Americans missing abroad. The Tice family deserves answers. We stand with the Tice family and will not rest until we bring Austin home."
Marc and Debra Tice expressed appreciation for those working to return their son home.
"For years we have pushed for engagement between the US and Syrian governments to help bring our son safely home, so we hope recent reports are accurate. We are deeply grateful to everyone working for Austin's safe return, and his continued absence shows there is more to be done," they said in a statement.
Tice was a student at Georgetown Law School in 2012 when he traveled to Syria as a freelance journalist for McClatchy and other news organizations.
In August of that year, Tice was south of Damascus, writing his final stories and planning to leave for Lebanon. He got into a car in Darayya, a Damascus suburb, and was detained at a checkpoint. Five weeks later, a video was released showing him held by unidentified armed men.
No one has claimed responsibility, and no other information has come from his captors.
