President Joe Biden directed the National Security Council to meet with the Syrian government to discuss detained journalist Austin Tice, according to his parents.
Debra Tice, Austin’s mother, said the “most important part” of her and her family’s May 2 meeting with the president was that he provided “a straight directive” for the NSC “to meet with the Syrian Government to listen and to work with them to figure out what they want, and to work with them.”
To her knowledge, no meeting has occurred, and other efforts are secondary to her. “Nothing is going to matter besides meeting with the Syrian government” because “every other effort is an effort that is supportive of that,” she said.
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She made the comments during a Monday Washington Post live interview alongside her husband and Austin’s father, Marc. Their remarks came about a month shy of the 10-year anniversary of his capture.
The two of them left the White House after their meeting with the president filled with “hope” for a possible reunification with their son “because that was such a straight directive.”
Days after the president’s meeting with the Tices, State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to provide details about how the conversations would work, saying, “We’ve often found that we can move the ball forward most effectively if we don’t detail everything we’re doing in public, if we do have space to conduct behind-the-scenes discussions.”
Tice, who is turning 41 next month, was abducted in August 2012, which makes him one one of the longest-held American hostages.
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The Biden administration agreed to a prisoner exchange in the spring with the Kremlin for Trevor Reed. The United States had to give up Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle drugs.
Two other Americans are currently being wrongfully detained by the Russian government, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, and their supporters have pressed the administration publicly to get their loved ones home. The president met with both families last week.
