- Title: White House cannot confirm any meetings on missing journalist Tice
- Date: 3rd May 2023
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (MAY 3, 2023) (REUTERS) WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY KARINE JEAN-PIERRE DURING BRIEFING WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY, KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, SAYING: “We cannot confirm any specific meetings past or present. As you know, in general meetings, in negotiations to secure the release of wrongfully detained Americans
- Embargoed: 17th May 2023 19:50
- Keywords: Austin Tice Syria U.S. White House journalist missed reporter
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- Country: US
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA001979003052023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday (May 3) the administration cannot confirm meetings on missing journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared a decade ago in Syria and has not been heard from since.
Syria's government has denied kidnapping or holding Tice.
Austin Tice, a former U.S. Marine and a freelance journalist, was kidnapped in August 2012 aged 31 while reporting in Damascus on the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
His family believes he is alive and still being held in Syria. The identity of Tice's captors is not known, and there has been no claim of responsibility for his abduction.
Washington suspended its diplomatic presence in Syria in 2012 at the onset the country's civil war.
Biden met Tice's parents at the White House in May of 2022 and told them he would work "relentlessly" until his return was secured. Efforts to secure his release appeared to have picked up since then.
(Production: Eva Weininger) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None