It was announced on the CNN network today (Friday) that senior officials in the Biden administration recently held direct talks with Damascus in order to release the American journalist, Austin Tesswho has been imprisoned in Syria for a decade after being arrested at a checkpoint near Damascus in August 2012 while reporting on the war in Syria.
“There were a number of direct interactions, none of which took place physically in Damascus, but so far there has been no significant progress,” said a senior US administration official, “we will continue to do everything we can to secure Tis’s release.” The remarks were made after the US even offered officials in Damascus to hold high-level meetings with the Assad regime to discuss Tiss’ case, but at this stage Syrian officials flatly refused.
Also, President Biden said yesterday that “we have once again asked the Syrian government to work with us so that we can bring Tiss home. On the tenth anniversary of his abduction, I am calling on Syria to end this and help us bring him home. His family deserves answers, and more importantly, they deserve to be reunited quickly with their loved one”.