A rare visit by an American official to Damascus

A senior US official recently visited Syria for top-level secret talks about the safety of two Americans missing in the country, according to the daughter of one of them.

The visit by Cash Patel, deputy aide to Vice President Donald Trump and top counterterrorism official in the White House, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.

But there was no immediate comment from the United States on these reports.

And there has been no confirmed visit by a senior American official to Damascus since the United States closed its embassy in the capital and withdrew its ambassador in 2012 as the country’s civil war worsened.

But many American officials, military and civilian, traveled to parts of the armed opposition in the following years.

The visit will be seen as a push by the government of President Bashar al-Assad, which faces US and European sanctions due to the 9-year war.

Majd Kamalmaz, a 62-year-old clinical psychologist from Virginia, who disappeared in 2017 and is believed to be being held in a Syrian government prison.

Freelance journalist Austin Tice, 39, has been missing for a while longer. Tice, from Houston, Texas, disappeared on August 14, 2012 after he got into a car in Daraya, in the Damascus suburb, to make a trip to Lebanon and was arrested at a checkpoint.

Kamalmaz’s daughter, Maryam, said the family found out about Patil’s visit last week. She told the Associated Press that she believed the flight took place in the past two weeks, but had no other details.

The pro-government daily Al-Watan confirmed what was reported in the Wall Street Journal, adding that Patel and Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, were in Damascus last August, where they met with the Syrian intelligence chief to discuss the Americans theme.

The newspaper, which generally reports on government positions, said Syrian officials demanded the withdrawal of US forces from eastern Syria, where they were deployed alongside Kurdish fighters.

Damascus considers the presence of US forces there illegal and is in conflict with the Kurds seeking self-government. The newspaper also reported that it was the third secret visit by such top US officials in recent years.