Biden Administration Remains Silent over Talks on American Hostages in Syria

President Joe Biden speaks in Warren, Michigan, US, on September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Joe Biden speaks in Warren, Michigan, US, on September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
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Biden Administration Remains Silent over Talks on American Hostages in Syria

President Joe Biden speaks in Warren, Michigan, US, on September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
President Joe Biden speaks in Warren, Michigan, US, on September 9, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

A number of US officials have remained silent on negotiations with the Syrian regime to release American hostages arrested in Syria.

Commenting on a report published by The Associated Press on a visit carried out by two US officials last summer to Syria, a source from the Syrian opposition said that this might bring the issue back to the surface.

Yet, a diplomatic source from the opposition said that progress is unlikely at a time when American officials are publicly criticizing the Syrian regime.

Yet the trip was ultimately fruitless, with the Syrians raising a series of demands that would have fundamentally reshaped Washington’s policy toward Damascus, including the removal of sanctions, the withdrawal of troops from the country and the restoration of normal diplomatic ties.

Equally as problematic for the American negotiators: Syrian officials offered no meaningful information on the fate and whereabouts of American hostage Austin Tice and others.

“Success would have been bringing the Americans home and we never got there,” Kash Patel, who attended the meeting as a senior White House aide, said in his first public comments about the effort.

The White House acknowledged the meeting in October but said little about it.

The AP has also learned about the US attempts to build goodwill with Syria well before the talks took place, with Patel describing how an unidentified US ally in the region offered assistance with cancer treatment for the wife of President Bashar Assad.

The details shed light on the sensitive and often secretive efforts to free hostages held by the US adversaries, a process that yielded high-profile successes for former President Donald Trump but also dead ends. It’s unclear how aggressively the new Biden administration will advance the efforts to free Tice and other Americans held around the world, particularly when demands at a negotiating table clash with the White House’s broader foreign policy goals.

The August meeting in Damascus represented the highest-level talks in years between the US and the Assad government.



UNDP Plans for $1.3Bln in Help for Syria

People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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UNDP Plans for $1.3Bln in Help for Syria

People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People wait their turn in a queue outside an ATM in Damascus on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

The United Nations Development Program is hoping to deliver $1.3 billion over three years to support war-ravaged Syria, including by rebuilding infrastructure and backing digital start-ups, its assistant secretary-general told Reuters.
Abdallah Dardari told Reuters in Damascus that investing in Syria - hit hard by 14 years of conflict that ended when former leader Bashar al-Assad was ousted by a rebel offensive in December and fled the country - was seen as a "global public good."
"Our total plan for Syria over three years is $1.3 billion. This is not just a number, but a comprehensive strategy covering all support aspects," Dardari said. He said that help could include introducing artificial intelligence, setting up social protection programs and rebuilding infrastructure.
He said it would be crucial to mobilize funds from different sources including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as well as other countries in the region.
Since Assad was toppled last year after a nearly 14-year civil war, his successors have called on the international community to lift sanctions imposed against the country during his rule.
So far, most of those sanctions remain in place, with the United States and other Western countries saying the new authorities still need to demonstrate a commitment to peaceful and inclusive rule.
Syria has $563 million in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) at the IMF. But using the funds requires approval by IMF members holding 85% of the total votes, giving the United States, with 16.5% of the votes, an effective veto.
Syria's finance minister, central bank governor and foreign minister are planning on attending the spring meetings next week, Reuters reported earlier this month.
It would be the first visit to the meetings by a high-level Syrian government delegation in at least two decades, and the first high-level visit by Syria's new authorities to the US Assad's fall.
Washington has handed Syria a list of conditions which, if fulfilled, could lead to some sanctions relief, Reuters reported last month. Dardari said that sanctions remained "a considerable obstacle" to Syria's growth trajectory.
"Syria needs tens of billions of dollars in investments and in technical assistance and so on, and that cannot happen with such heavy sanctions imposed on the country," he said, calling for sanctions "to be lifted in a comprehensive manner." Dardari said UNDP had secured a sanctions exemption from the US Treasury to mobilize up to $50 million to repair the Deir Ali power plant south of Damascus.
Three sources familiar with the issue told Reuters the World Bank is exploring hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to improve Syria's electricity grid and support the public sector.
Syria's central bank governor Abdelkader Husrieh told Reuters that his country wanted to be compliant with global financial standards but that sanctions were still "blocking the economy from going forward".
"We want to be part of the international financial system and hope that the international community will help us to remove any obstacle to this integration," he said.