US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that President Donald Trump sent a personal message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last March, related to the American journalist Austin Tice, who was kidnapped 8 years ago in Syria.
Pompeo added - in a statement marking the eighth anniversary of Austen's disappearance - that Trump suggested in his message to Assad that a direct dialogue be opened regarding this.
Pompeo confirmed that the US government had repeatedly tried to communicate with Syrian officials to obtain the journalist's release.
Austin was working as a photojournalist for a number of agencies when he was kidnapped after being arrested at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012, and Washington suggested that he was being held by the Syrian regime.
A month after his disappearance, Austin appeared in a video, blindfolded, by an unknown armed group.
The 47-second video, titled "Austin Tice Is Still Alive," showed a blindfolded person like Austin Tice, 31, a US reporter and cameraman, led by men chanting "God is Great" to a high plateau.
Thais is a former Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and arrived in Syria in May 2012 from Turkey, but without a visa. After touring with Syrian opposition fighters, he returned to Damascus in August 2012, where he was lost.