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Local newspaper Al-Watan cited Syrian sources, describing them as “well-informed,” confirming that officials discussed various files during the visits, including files on “US hostages” and the US sanctions imposed on Syria.
According to the newspaper, the US president’s special envoy for kidnapping matters, Roger Carstens, assistant to the US president and director of counterterrorism at the White House, Cash Patel, met with Mamlouk and discussed “a broad range of topics involving a series of offers and requests. “
Also, according to sources in the newspaper, “this is not the first visit by US officials of this high level, and it was preceded by three similar visits to Damascus in recent months and years.”
No optimism in Damascus
The newspaper said that the Syrian side refused to discuss the sanctions and other file, given the “file of US withdrawal” from Syrian territories, adding that US officials tried to open the file of “kidnapped”, including the journalist Austin Tice, but Damascus insisted on the priority of the US withdrawal request.
The official Syrian version uses the term “kidnapped Americans” to refer to holders of US citizenship, who according to Washington are being held in Damascus.
In a novel published by “Al-Watan” based on “information”, Tice “is not a journalist, but an agent contracted with US intelligence (…) who entered Syrian territories through smuggling.” Furthermore, this novel says that Tice “disappeared in Ghouta under mysterious circumstances, and his fate was not yet known, and the information suggests that his disappearance was the result of the struggle of extremist groups.”
Reflecting Damascus’s negative view of the footsteps of US President Donald Trump’s administration, newspaper sources said Damascus “does not trust” these visits or their “potential results” because “it is aware of the influence of American lobbies on American presidents, their decisions and their general policies. “
Media mobility
The first American talk about the visits by White House administration officials to Damascus came through the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, when it said that Patil visited Damascus in an effort to secure “ the release of at least two Americans who they believed that President Bashar al-Assad had detained them, ” as the newspaper said.
The sources of the American newspaper did not reveal the identities of the Syrian officials who received their American counterparts. However, they said officials hope the “deal” will lead to the “release” of Tice and “USAID” worker Majd Kamal Almaz (who disappeared in Syria in 2017). ).
A spokeswoman for the State Department declined to comment with the newspaper. White House officials also did not respond to similar requests, nor did the Syrian mission to the United Nations.
The moment of my choice?
Media reports that spoke of America’s efforts on this issue indicate the great attention Trump has devoted to its speedy completion.
Trump had previously flagged Tice’s file with various letters and statements, and also sent a special message to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, last April (eighth anniversary of the loss of the Tice trail), proposing a direct dialogue about.
Last week, the US Deputy President and the White House counterterrorism director negotiated a swap deal that led to the release of two Americans whom Ansar Allah had detained in Yemen, in exchange for the release of more than 200 of the group’s members in the Sultanate of Oman.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration is trying to pressure Venezuela to release six oil executives detained since 2017, along with other Americans who were arrested in May after entering Venezuela to participate in a coup attempt to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.
Lebanese mediation?
During the visit of the Lebanese Director General of Public Security, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, to Washington last week, the latter met with the White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gina Haspel, and Assistant Secretary of State David Hale; The discussion included, according to US media reports, the file “Americans detained in Syria.”
Major General Ibrahim previously played a mediator role between Damascus and Washington last year to secure the release of American Sam Goodwin, who was detained in Syria for more than two months during a multi-country trip.
While Ibrahim confirmed in a media interview during the visit that he hopes to work for the release of more detainees in Iran and Syria, he declined to give new details about Tice’s file, saying “there are no confirmations on his situation.”
