President-elect Trump's special envoy for the hostage crisis, Adam Boehler, has pressed Syrian rebels to release American hostages in the country as the region faces further instability.
“The most important thing we need to think about right now is whether we can bring Americans home.” Boehler said Monday. On “Fox & Friends”. “There's an American there. There's actually four or five more.”
Boehler mentioned Austin Tice, an American freelance journalist who disappeared near the Syrian capital Damascus in August 2012. A video released weeks after his disappearance showed Theis being blindfolded and restrained by armed men.
President Biden said Sunday that the United States believes Theis is still alive 12 years after his disappearance.
Tice's family met with White House and State Department officials in recent days. They have been pressuring government officials for years to bring him home.
The conversation came after Syrian rebels overthrew the government and President Bashar al-Assad over the weekend, ending a 10-day offensive in which fighters seized government-controlled land. President Assad fled the country with his family and was granted asylum in Russia.
Domestic turmoil has further heightened instability in the region between Israel, Iran, and proxy groups. Boehler said it would be “great” to bring Tais back to the United States because the Syrian regime is “collapsing.”
“You see Bashar went to Russia, and now you have rebels who may or may not be friends of the United States,” he said.
As the United States prepares for the Trump administration to take office, questions remain about how the Trump administration will respond to the growing international crisis. Boehler said the Biden administration is doing “nothing” and using “just words,” which gives Israel the power to step into a “vacuum” and “actually blow people away.” He said he was thinking about it.
“They are creating a situation where pagers explode in Hezbollah, so they will blow them away. That’s the thing,” he said.
Boehler went on to point out that the situation in the Middle East has begun to change since Trump was elected president.
In Syria, “rebels have become emboldened.” He claimed that Ukraine “suddenly” wanted to talk about a ceasefire, which “we didn't talk about before”.
“Everything President Trump promised that peace begins with strength has already begun since his election,” Boehler said.
