ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interim government has agreed to help the United States find its missing citizens or their remains, the US special envoy said on Sunday, a day after meeting interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“A powerful step forward. The new Syrian government has agreed to assist the USA in locating and returning USA citizens or their remains. The families of Austin Tice, Majd Kamalmaz, and Kayla Mueller must have closure,” Tom Barrack, who also serves as the US ambassador to Turkey, said on X.
Barrack met Sharaa and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in Istanbul on Saturday after Washington lifted sanctions on Damascus, discussing a host of topics including investment opportunities and joint security cooperation.
Tice, a freelance journalist for outlets such as AFP and The Washington Post, has been missing in Syria since 2012 after being detained at a checkpoint.
Kamalmaz, a Syrian-American psychologist from Virginia, vanished in Syria in 2017 after being stopped at a regime checkpoint, and aid worker Mueller was kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS), which announced her death in a Jordanian airstrike in 2015, but her death remains disputed by Washington.
“President Trump has made it clear that bringing home USA citizens or honoring, with dignity, their remains is a major priority everywhere. The new Syrian Government will aid us in this commitment,” Barrack said.
An informed Syrian source told AFP that 11 Americans are on Washington’s list for a search mission for the remains of Americans killed by ISIS in Syria.
During a trip to the Middle East last week, Trump announced his decision to lift sanctions on Syria. The next day, Trump met with Sharaa during a summit in Riyadh, hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and attended remotely by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Trump urged Sharaa to normalize relations with Israel, expel all “foreign terrorists” from Syria, and cooperate with the US to prevent an ISIS resurgence, according to a White House statement.
On Friday, the US Treasury issued the Syria General License (GL) 25 to effectively lift all sanctions.
Since taking office in January after toppling the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, the new leadership in Damascus has made lifting international sanctions a top priority. While several countries have expressed openness to removing Assad-era restrictions, they have emphasized the need for the new leadership to meet critical benchmarks such as inclusive governance and fighting terrorism.
