It’s Jana Choukeir

DUBAI (Reuters) – The mother of American journalist Austin Tice said on Monday she was hopeful that new governments in the US and Syria would help her find her missing son, who was taken captive during a reporting trip near Damascus nearly 12 years ago.

“Today, January 20, President (Donald) Trump will be sworn into office and I have high hopes that his administration will work to bring Austin home,” Debra Tice told a press conference in Damascus organized by the NGO Hostage Aid Worldwide.

She said she was encouraged because the new US government officials had already approached her about her son’s disappearance.

Mr. Tice criticized the administration of US President Joe Biden, saying that he did not negotiate enough for his son’s release, even in recent months.

Tice, who works as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and other publications, was one of the first US journalists to enter Syria after the start of the civil war in 2011.

She went there in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped giving him visas.

The toppling of former president Bashar al-Assad in December by Syrian rebels has allowed him to return to his home in Texas.

Tice added that on Sunday he met with Syria’s new leaders, who he said showed “commitment” to the return of his son. “The new government knows what we are going through and is trying to improve things for people like us,” he said.

However, Tice said the removal of Assad on 8 Dec. it hampered the search for her son, as it made it difficult to know where her son was being held and by whom.

“It’s like we’re back to the beginning,” he said.

“I haven’t seen or talked to him in 12 years, but I know he’s there. Austin, if you feel this somewhere, I love you. I know you’re not giving up and I’m not giving up. Me,” he added.

The US State Department last week said there was no US government agency on the ground in Syria involved in the investigation into Tice.

Tice has been under intense scrutiny since the ouster of Assad after 13 years of civil war in December.

US officials have said they are concerned that Tice may have been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes or could have been knocked unconscious after Assad’s forces cut power to the prison in Damascus before they took off.

He was captured in the area of ​​Damascus in Daraya. Reuters previously reported that in 2013 Tice, a former marine, left his room and was seen walking between houses on the streets of Damascus in Mazzeh.

They were recaptured soon after they fled, possibly by forces that answered directly to Assad, current and former US officials said. Syrian authorities have not confirmed that Tice is in their custody. The New York Times (NYSE: ) previously reported a temporary breakout and a rebound.

Tens of thousands of Syrian prisoners were released from Assad’s prisons after his brutal regime ended.