The mother of Austin Tice, the American journalist kidnapped in Syria, said Monday that she met with Syria’s new leader in Damascus and expressed hope that he would “turn the page” in the more than decade-long search for her son.

Debra Tice held a news conference in Damascus on Monday after meeting with Ahmed al-Shar, whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebel group led a surprise offensive last month that ousted President Bashar al-Assad, ending more than 50 years of rule by the Assad family in Syria. The Syrian state news agency also reported on the meeting, publishing pictures of her in conversation with Mr. al-Sharom in the presidential palace.

Although she had no new information on her son’s whereabouts, Ms Tice, who arrived in Damascus on Saturday, said she was optimistic that Syria’s new rebel leaders would help her and Syrian families searching for loved ones still being held as disappeared after they were detained in the prison of the old regime. infamous prisons.

“It was so wonderful to know that they are committed and determined to bring home my son and your sons,” Ms Tice said, addressing the Syrians searching for the missing. loved ones too. “They know what we’re going through.”

Ms. Tice said that as far as she knew, her son was still in captivity, but the turmoil following the ouster of Mr. al-Assad made it difficult to determine his whereabouts.

“It’s like I’m starting all over again,” she said.

Mr. Tice was kidnapped at a checkpoint in the suburbs of Damascus in 2012. He appeared shortly after in the video, blindfolded and in the hands of masked men with assault rifles. Former US officials said they believed the video was a ploy by the government to blame his disappearance on the rebels.

Former and current US officials have said they believe Mr. Tice managed to escape a few weeks after being captured through a prison cell window, but was captured by Syrian intelligence.

President Joe Biden said in December, after the ouster of Mr. al-Assad, that American officials believe that Mr. They are still in captivity and hope to bring him home, adding that “there is no direct evidence” about his status.

Officials in his administration have been searching for Mr. Tice, including visit to Damascus December as his special envoy for the hostages. The White House too gave the rebel group a list former Syrian officials who might know about Mr. Ticeu, a freelance journalist from Houston who wrote for The Washington Post and other newspapers.

But Mrs. Tice recently criticized the Biden administration, saying it did not negotiate hard enough for her son’s release.

Ms Tice said she felt hopeful about the incoming administration of Donald Trump. “Things will change,” she said. “I’m looking forward to it. His men have already come to me.”

It was Ms Tica’s first visit to Syria since 2015, when she met with Assad government officials, who never confirmed whether they had detained her son and later stopped issuing her visas.

During the meeting with Mr. al-Shara, Ms. Tice said, he told her about his time in prison. In 2003, Mr. al-Shara joined Al Qaeda in the fight against the American occupation of Iraq, where Mr. Tice once served as a marine. Mr al-Shara spent years in a US prison in Iraq, according to Arab media reports.

After leading the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda in the early days of the 13-year insurgency against Mr. al-Assad, Mr. al-Sharaa reformulated the group as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in 2017 and tried to distance it from its al Qaeda past.

Former and current US officials have said they believe Mr. Tice is being held in several security detention facilities, including Branch 248 and Branch 215, which are believed to be military intelligence sites.

During her visit to Syria, she visited both places, Ms Tice said, describing them as “a horrible, horrible nightmare”.