A top Lebanese official, recruited by Washington to assist in the release of a United States hostage being held in Syria, has recently visited Damascus in his latest push for the American’s freedom, a Lebanese TV network reported on Saturday. In a conversation with Al Jadeed news channel, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, director-general of the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security, revealed he had just returned from a two-day trip to the Syrian capital, redoubling his efforts to free Austin Tice, a US citizen, freelance journalist and former Marine officer who went missing in 2012 while reporting on the Syrian civil war. Ibrahim explained he had decided to take the job after his October meeting with National Security Adviser Robert C. O’Brien and Tice’s mother in Washington. “I won’t stop working on this subject and I promised [her that],” he said during the interview. Last month, a White House official confirmed that administration representatives themselves had also traveled to Damascus earlier this year to discuss the prisoner’s release with Syrian authorities.
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