Roger Carstens, the Biden administration’s top official for the release of Americans detained abroad, traveled to Damascus, Syria, on Friday for a high-risk mission: making the first known face-to-face contact with the interim government and asking help to find Missing American journalist Austin Tice.
Tice was kidnapped in Syria 12 years ago during the civil war and brutal reign of The now deposed Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. For years, U.S. officials have said they do not know for sure whether Tice is still alive, where he is being held or who is holding him.
Following his trip to Syria, in an exclusive interview Friday with “Face the Nation” from Amman, Jordan, Carstens revealed that the Office of the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs today conducted a “joint search for a installation” with Hay’at Tahrir al-Shamknown as HTS – the rebel group that recently overthrew the Assad regime and is emerging as a leading power – “which we all thought would have some kind of relationship with Austin Tice.”
He did not reveal the details of the search or its outcome, only saying that HTS was “being helpful in the search for Austin.”
“We had a lot of information over the last 12 years that pointed to a variety of facilities,” Carstens said. “And by narrowing that down over 12 years, we came up with a priority list of about six sites. And of those six sites, we felt this one had the highest likelihood of having occupied Austin at the same time.”
Carstens said he was “shocked” by the number of prisons the Assad regime operated.
“I mean, you would almost think that if you were running a country and you wanted to imprison your enemies, you would have a prison and it wouldn’t be secret,” Carstens said. “But having 35 or 40 secret prisons seems just horrible, disturbing, and yet somehow fascinating.”
The State Department’s top diplomat for the Middle East, Barbara Leaf, Undersecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, accompanied Carstens to Damascus as a gesture of greater rapprochement with HTS.
Senior advisor for the Middle East, Daniel Rubinstein, was also with the delegation. They were the first American diplomats to visit Damascus in more than a decade, according to a State Department spokesperson.
They had planned to meet with HTS representatives to discuss transition principles supported by the United States and its regional partners in Aqaba, Jordan, the spokesperson said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Aqaba last week to meet with Middle East leaders and discuss the situation in Syria.
Security for the US delegation was provided by DSS Mobile Security Deployments, according to a State Department official. U.S. special operations forces also provided support while traveling in vehicles across the Jordanian border and on the road to Damascus. HTS assured the convoy that it would be granted safe passage while in Syria, but there remains a threat of attacks by other terrorist groups, including ISIS.
CBS News withheld publication of this story for security reasons at the request of the State Department.
While finding and freeing Tice and other American citizens who disappeared under the Assad regime is the ultimate goal, U.S. officials downplayed expectations of a breakthrough on this trip. Multiple sources told CBS News that Carstens and Leaf’s intention was to convey American interests to HTS senior leaders and learn everything they could about Tice.
Rubinstein will lead US diplomacy in Syria, engaging directly with the Syrian people and key parties in Syria, the State Department spokesperson added.
The diplomatic approach to HTS comes in a volatile, war-torn region at an uncertain time. Two sources even compared the potential danger to expeditionary diplomacy practiced by the late U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens, who led rebel outreach efforts in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 and was killed in a terrorist attack on a diplomatic compound and outpost. United States intelligence.
The sending of high-level US diplomats to Damascus represents a significant step in the reopening of relations between the United States and Syria after the fall of the Assad regime less than two weeks ago. Operations at the US embassy in Damascus have been suspended since 2012, shortly after the Assad regime brutally suppressed an uprising that turned into a 14-year civil war and caused 13 million Syrians to flee the country in one of the world’s largest humanitarian disasters.
The United States formally designated HTS, which had ties to Al Qaeda, as a foreign terrorist organization in 2018. Its leader, Mohammed al Jolani, was designated a terrorist by the United States in 2013 and before that served time in a US prison in Iraq. .
Since overthrowing Assad, HTS has publicly expressed interest in a new, more moderate trajectory. Al Jolani even stripped himself of his nom de guerre and now uses his legal name, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
US sanctions on HTS tied to those terrorist designations complicate the scope somewhat, but have not prevented US officials from establishing direct contact with HTS at the direction of President Biden. Blinken recently confirmed that US officials were in contact with HTS representatives ahead of Carstens and Leaf’s visit.
“We have heard positive statements from Mr. Jolani, the leader of HTS,” Blinken told Bloomberg News on Thursday. “But what everyone is focused on is what is really happening on the ground, what are they doing? Are they working to build a transition in Syria that appeals to everyone?”
In that same interview, Blinken also appeared to raise the possibility that the United States could help lift sanctions imposed by the United Nations on HTS and its leader, if HTS builds what he called an inclusive non-sectarian government and eventually holds elections. The Biden administration is not expected to lift the US terrorist designation before the president’s term ends on January 20.
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder revealed Thursday that the United States currently has approximately 2,000 troops inside Syria as part of the mission to defeat ISIS, a number far larger than the 900 troops the Biden administration had previously acknowledged. There are at least five US military bases in the north and south of the country.
The Biden administration is concerned that thousands of ISIS prisoners detained in a camp known as al-Hol could be released. It is currently guarded by the Syrian Democratic Forces, Kurdish allies of the United States who distrust the new powerful HTS. The situation on the ground is changing rapidly since Russia and Iran withdrew military support from the Assad regime, which has restored the balance of power. Türkiye, which has been a sometimes problematic ally of the United States, has been a conduit to HTS and is emerging as a power broker.
A high-risk mission like this is unusual for the typically risk-averse Biden administration, which has exercised consistently restrained diplomacy. Blinken approved Carstens and Leaf’s trip and relevant congressional leaders were briefed about it days ago.
“I think it’s important to have direct communication, it’s important to speak as clearly as possible, listen, make sure we understand as best we can where they’re going and where they want to go,” Blinken said Thursday.
in a press conference In Moscow on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had not yet met with Assad, who fled to Russia when his regime fell earlier this month. Putin added that he would ask Assad about Austin Tice when they meet.
Tice, a Marine Corps veteran, worked for several news organizations, including CBS News.
Margaret Brennan
