Top White House official travelled to Syria to negotiate over hostages

A top White House official recently traveled to Damascus for secret talks with the Assad regime, marking the first time such a high-level U.S. official has met in Syria with the isolated government in more than a decade, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. 

The newspaper, according to Trump administration officials and others familiar with the negotiations, indicated that the aim of the visit was an effort to secure release of at least two Americans believed to be held by the Syrian authorities. 

The US official who travelled was Kash Patel, a deputy assistant to President Trump and the top White House counterterrorism official. The Wall Street Journal stated that officials familiar with the trip declined to say whom Mr. Patel met with during his trip.

The last known talks between White House and Syrian officials in Damascus took place in 2010. The U.S. cut off diplomatic relations with Syria in 2012 to protest Mr. Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters calling for an end to his regime.

U.S. officials are hoping a deal with Mr. Assad would lead to freedom for 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. 

According to the newspaper, at least four other Americans are believed to be held by the Syrian government, but little is known about those cases.

In March, Mr. Trump wrote Mr. Assad a private letter proposing a “direct dialogue” about Mr. Tice, and administration officials have tried a variety of ways to negotiate a deal.

Last week, Lebanon’s top security chief, Abbas Ibrahim, met at the White House with Robert O’Brien, the White House national security adviser, to discuss the Americans held in Syria, according to people involved in the talks, The Wall Street Journal said.