Lebanon: Mediation Ongoing for Austin Tice, Held in Syria

Tice, a freelance photojournalist, disappeared on August 14, 2012 after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus (AFP)
Tice, a freelance photojournalist, disappeared on August 14, 2012 after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus (AFP)
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Lebanon: Mediation Ongoing for Austin Tice, Held in Syria

Tice, a freelance photojournalist, disappeared on August 14, 2012 after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus (AFP)
Tice, a freelance photojournalist, disappeared on August 14, 2012 after being detained at a checkpoint near Damascus (AFP)

Lebanon is still mediating between the United States and Syria over the fate of American journalist Austin Tice who went missing a decade ago in the war-torn country, a Lebanese general said Tuesday.

Washington maintains that Tice is held by Syrian authorities.

Tice went missing shortly after his 31st birthday on Aug. 14, 2012, at a checkpoint in a contested area west of the Syrian capital of Damascus. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He has not been heard from since.

Lebanese Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, who met with US officials in Washington in May as part of mediation efforts for Tice’s release, told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that his mission is ongoing but described it as “long and complicated."

Ibrahim, head of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, has mediated complicated hostage releases in the past and regularly visits Syria.

In August, President Joe Biden accused Syria of detaining Tice, the clearest indication so far that the US is certain that the journalist is being held by President Bashar Assad's government.

Just few months earlier, in May, Biden met Tice’s parents and reiterated his commitment toward “Austin’s long overdue return to his family.”

Syria promptly denied holding Tice or other Americans.

At the Beirut press conference, Ibrahim struck an upbeat tone.

“Matters might be moving slowly but they are going as they should," he said. “The back-and-forth negotiations did not stop.”

Tice, from Houston, is one of two Americans who went missing in Syria. The other is Majd Kamalmaz, a psychologist from Virginia, who vanished there in 2017.

Tice's work has been published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets. He went to Syria to cover the conflict that started in 2011, quickly descending into a full-blown war.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced nearly half of Syria's pre-conflict population of 23 million. More than 5 million of those are now outside Syria.



Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
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Türkiye Backing Syria’s Military and Has No Immediate Withdrawal Plans, Defense Minister Says 

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler attends a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on establishing a mine countermeasures naval group in the Black Sea, aimed at clearing mines floating there as a result of the war in Ukraine, in Istanbul, Türkiye, January 11, 2024. (Reuters)

Türkiye is training and advising Syria's armed forces and helping improve its defenses, and has no immediate plans for the withdrawal or relocation of its troops stationed there, Defense Minister Yasar Guler told Reuters.

Türkiye has emerged as a key foreign ally of Syria's new government since opposition groups - some of them backed for years by Ankara - ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December to end his family's five-decade rule.

It has promised to help rebuild neighboring Syria and facilitate the return of millions of Syrian civil war refugees, and played a key role last month getting US and European sanctions on Syria lifted.

The newfound Turkish influence in Damascus has raised Israeli concerns and risked a standoff or worse in Syria between the regional powers.

In written answers to questions from Reuters, Guler said Türkiye and Israel, which carried out its latest airstrikes on southern Syria late on Tuesday, are continuing de-confliction talks to avoid military accidents in the country.

Türkiye’s overall priority in Syria is preserving its territorial integrity and unity, and ridding it of terrorism, he said, adding Ankara was supporting Damascus in these efforts.

"We have started providing military training and consultancy services, while taking steps to increase Syria's defense capacity," Guler said, without elaborating on those steps.

Named to the post by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan two years ago, Guler said it was too early to discuss possible withdrawal or relocation of the more than 20,000 Turkish troops in Syria.

Ankara controlled swathes of northern Syria and established dozens of bases there after several cross-border operations in recent years against Kurdish militants it deems terrorists.

This can "only be re-evaluated when Syria achieves peace and stability, when the threat of terrorism in the region is fully removed, when our border security is fully ensured, and when the honorable return of people who had to flee is done," he said.

NATO member Türkiye has accused Israel of undermining Syrian peace and rebuilding with its military operations there in recent months and, since late 2023, has also fiercely criticized Israel's assault on Gaza.

But the two regional powers have been quietly working to establish a de-confliction mechanism in Syria.

Guler described the talks as "technical level meetings to establish a de-confliction mechanism to prevent unwanted events" or direct conflict, as well as "a communication and coordination structure".

"Our efforts to form this line and make it fully operational continue. Yet it should not be forgotten that the de-confliction mechanism is not a normalization," he told Reuters.