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According to the newspaper in its issue issued Monday, the Deputy Vice President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the head of the White House counterterrorism department, Cash Patel, went to Damascus earlier this year.
The newspaper noted that Patel held “secret meetings” in Damascus to secure the release of two US citizens detained by the Assad regime.
US officials did not comment on Cash Patel’s visit to Damascus and the personalities he met, nor was there any clarification issued by the Assad regime on the visit.
Patel is considered the first American official to visit Syria in a decade due to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Washington and the regime in 2012.
The issue of US hostages with the Assad regime has occupied the attention of US President Donald Trump in recent years in light of the Assad regime’s repeated denials and refusal to enter into negotiations.
The most prominent hostage of the Assad regime is the American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped near Damascus eight years ago.
Last March, Trump asked Bashar Assad to release Austin, saying, “The United States is working hard with Syria to get Tice out, and we hope the Syrian government will do so,” adding, “Please work with us. , and we appreciate that you (the Assad regime) allow him to leave. “
While former National Security Adviser John Bolton explained in his recent book that the US president wanted to negotiate with the head of the regime, Bashar Assad, about the American hostages.
However, Asad declined to speak on the matter, prompting Trump’s ire and leading him to say, “I tell you, you will be hurt if you don’t return our hostages.”
This coincided with the visit of Lebanese Director of Security Abbas Ibrahim last week to Washington on an official visit at the invitation of the White House National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, to play the role of mediator with the Assad regime to the release of the hostages.
