US Intelligence Suggests American Who Vanished in Syria in 2017 Has Died, Daughter Says

Maryam Kamalmaz holds a photo of her father with some of his 14 grandchildren in Grand Prairie, Texas, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Maryam Kamalmaz holds a photo of her father with some of his 14 grandchildren in Grand Prairie, Texas, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
TT
20

US Intelligence Suggests American Who Vanished in Syria in 2017 Has Died, Daughter Says

Maryam Kamalmaz holds a photo of her father with some of his 14 grandchildren in Grand Prairie, Texas, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
Maryam Kamalmaz holds a photo of her father with some of his 14 grandchildren in Grand Prairie, Texas, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

US officials have developed specific and highly credible intelligence suggesting that an American citizen who disappeared seven years ago while traveling in Syria has died, the man's daughter said Saturday.

Maryam Kamalmaz said in an interview with The Associated Press that during a meeting in Washington this month with eight senior American officials she was presented with detailed intelligence about the presumed death of her father, Majd, a psychotherapist from Texas.

The officials told her that on a scale of one to 10, their confidence level about her father's death was a "high nine." She said she asked whether other detained Americans had ever been successfully recovered in the face of such credible information, and was told no.

"What more do I need? That was a lot of high-level officials that we needed to confirm to us that he’s really gone. There was no way to beat around the bush," Maryam Kamalmaz said.

She said officials told her they believe the death occurred years ago, early in her father's captivity. In 2020, she said, officials told the family that they had reason to believe that he has died of heart failure in 2017, but the family held out hope and US officials continued their pursuit.

But, she said, "Not until this meeting did they really confirm to us how credible the information is and the different levels of (verification) it had to go through."

She did not describe the intelligence she learned.

Spokespeople for the White House and the FBI, which investigates abductions in foreign countries, did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.

Majd Kamalmaz disappeared in February 2017 at the age of 59 while traveling in Syria to visit an elderly family member. The FBI has said he was stopped at a Syrian government checkpoint in a suburb of Damascus and had not been heard from since.

Kamalmaz is one of multiple Americans who have disappeared in Syria, including the journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus. Syria has publicly denied holding Americans in captivity.

In 2020, in the final months of the Trump administration, senior officials visited Damascus for a high-level meeting aimed at negotiating release of the Americans. But the meeting proved unfruitful, with the Syrians not providing any proof-of-life information and making demands that US officials deemed unreasonable. US officials have said they are continuing to try to bring home Tice.

The New York Times first reported on the presumed death of Majd Kamalmaz.



Iran Seeks to Turn ‘New Page’ in Ties with Lebanon

 In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
TT
20

Iran Seeks to Turn ‘New Page’ in Ties with Lebanon

 In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)
In this photo released by the Lebanese Presidency press office, Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, right, shakes hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Lebanese Presidency press office via AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Lebanese officials on Tuesday that Iran wanted to turn a "new page" in relations with Beirut, hinting at a shift in diplomatic ties that were long grounded in supporting Tehran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah was once a powerful armed movement and political party with sway over Lebanon's state, but it was severely weakened by Israel's bombing campaign last year. Since then, Lebanon's army commander was elected president and a new cabinet with curtailed influence for Hezbollah and its allies took power.

Araqchi's one-day trip to Beirut on Tuesday was his first since February, when he attended the funeral of Hezbollah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, killed in Israeli air strikes in September.

Araqchi told both Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi that he wanted to "turn a new page" in Iran's ties with Lebanon, according to statements by Salam and Raggi's offices.

"Araqchi affirmed his country's keenness to open a new page in bilateral relations with Lebanon, based on mutual respect and non-interference in each other's internal affairs," Salam's office said. Araqchi also extended a formal invitation for Salam to visit Iran.

The statement from Raggi's office said the pair had a "frank and direct discussion," including on establishing the state's monopoly on the use of arms - an apparent reference to possible negotiations on the future of Hezbollah's arsenal.

The top Iranian diplomat briefly addressed reporters on Tuesday after meeting with Lebanon's parliament speaker Nabih Berri, who is a key Hezbollah ally. Unlike previous addresses by Iranian diplomats, his comments did not mention Hezbollah.

The visit followed several turbulent episodes in ties between the two countries.

Lebanon's foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador to Beirut in April over comments alleging that plans to disarm Hezbollah were a "conspiracy".

Last year, then-Prime Minister Najib Mikati also issued a rare rebuke of Iran for "interfering" in internal Lebanese affairs.

In February, Iran blocked Lebanese planes from repatriating dozens of Lebanese nationals stranded in Tehran after Lebanon said it would not allow Iranian aircraft to land in Beirut because of Israel's threats that it would bomb the planes.