US asks Syrian rebels HTS to help in search for journalist Austin Tice

By Simon Lewis and David Brunnstrom

The United States has asked Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group to help locate and free missing American journalist Austin Tice as it liberates the country's prisons in the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's overthrow, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday.

Washington is telling all parties in Syria that Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, is a top U.S. priority, Miller told a press briefing.

Miller said that message had been sent via intermediaries to HTS, the faction that led the rebel operation that unseated Assad and which the U.S. considers to be a terror group, as well as other entities operating in Syria.

"In all of our communications with parties that we know talk to HTS, we have sent very clearly the message that as they move through Syria liberating prisons, that our top priority is the return of Austin Tice," he said.

"We want anyone who's operating on the ground in Syria to be on the lookout for him, and if they do find him, to return to him to us safely as soon as possible."

President Joe Biden has said he believes Tice is alive and has dispatched hostage-affairs envoy Roger Carstens to the region as part of intensive efforts to free him.

HTS is using the right words in its statements, but the United States would judge it by its actions, Miller said, declining to say whether Washington would change the group's designation as a foreign terrorist organization, which prevents the U.S. from assisting the group.

"We have seen over the years, any number of militant groups who have seized power, who have promised that they would respect minorities, who have promised that they would respect religious freedom, promised that they would govern in an inclusive way, and then see them fail to meet those promises," Miller said.

"So we really do mean it when we say what's important is watching how they actually behave in the coming weeks."

Miller said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Tuesday about the situation in Syria with counterparts from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt.

Earlier on Tuesday, Blinken issued a statement saying the United States fully supports Syria's political transition process and wants it to lead to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability.