Austin Tice, who is detained in Syria.. What is the latest information about him?

Nizar Zakka told Reuters while in Damascus that he “believes that Tice is being held by a very small number of people in a safe house, in order to conduct an exchange or make a deal.”

Zakka is a Lebanese businessman who holds permanent residency in the United States. He was detained by Iran for 4 years until 2019 on charges of espionage. He is the head of the Hostage Support Organization around the world.

Zakka traveled to Syria several times after Assad’s ouster in an attempt to track down Tice, a former US Marine and freelance journalist who was kidnapped in 2012 while covering anti-Assad protests in Damascus.

Zakka said that investigations conducted by the organization concluded that Tice is still in Syria, and that much progress has been made in finding him over the past weeks.

He continued: “We hoped that Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham would help us more, but unfortunately it did not help us because it had its own concerns.”

Zakka explained that he does not have accurate information about Tice’s whereabouts, but he believes that a deal, which may involve pressure from Russia, an ally of Assad, may lead to the release of the American journalist.

Tice was arrested at a checkpoint in Daraya, near Damascus, in August 2012. Reuters was the first to report that Tice was able to sneak out of his cell in 2013, and was seen moving between houses in the streets of the upscale Mezzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital.

Current and former US officials said he was captured again shortly after his escape, likely by forces that reported directly to Assad.

His mother, Debra Tice, expressed her hope that the changes in Syria would lead to her son’s liberation.