Hours ago, US's Wall Street Journal revealed that a White House official traveled to Damascus earlier this year for secret meetings with the Syrian government aiming to release at least two Americans thought to be held there.
The newspaper quoted an official in the President Donald Trump's administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying on Sunday, that Kash Patel, a deputy assistant to President Trump and the top White House counterterrorism official had flown to Damascus.
The visit was specifically aiming to free Austin Tice, a freelance journalist and former Marine officer who disappeared while reporting in Syria in 2012, and Majd Kamalmaz, a Syrian-American therapist who disappeared after being stopped at a Syrian government checkpoint in 2017.
At least four other Americans are believed to be held by the Syrian government, the newspaper reported, but little is known about those cases.
"It is emblematic of how President Trump has made it a major priority to bring Americans home who have been detained overseas," said the official to WSJ.
The newspaper wrote that the Trump administration officials and others familiar with the negotiations, described Patel's trip is the first time such a high-level US official had met in Damascus with the isolated government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in more than a decade.
The Journal reported that Trump wrote Assad a private letter in March, proposing a "direct dialogue" about Tice.
Furthermore, WSJ wrote that Lebanon's top security chief, Abbas Ibrahim, met last week at the White House with national security adviser Robert O'Brien to discuss the Americans held in Syria, according to people involved in the talks.
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Journalist Austin Tice went missing in Syria in 2012 - WSJ[/caption]
Talks with Damascus have not succeeded with Damascus repeatedly demanding Washington to withdraw all its forces from the country.
Weeks ago, the US Treasury Department announced new group of sanctions imposed on Syria, which target 13 entities and several inpiduals, in line with the “Caesar Act” previously approved by Congress and Trump.
Also, the administration mentioned that it included Yasser Ibrahim, the financial advisor of Al-Assad, and his two sisters, Nasreen and Rana Ibrahim, on the sanctions list.
Earlier in June, new US sanctions, took effect under the so-called Caesar Act, and have further paralyzed the war-torn country’s already ailing economy by preventing foreign companies from doing business with Damascus.
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