By Jana Choukeir

DUBAI (Reuters) – The mother of American journalist Austin Tice said on Monday she was hopeful that the new administrations in the U.S. and Syria would help her find her missing son, who was captured during a reporting trip near in Damascus about 12 years ago.

“Today, January 20, President (Donald) Trump will take the oath of office and I have great hope that his administration will work to bring Austin home,” Debra Tice told a press conference in Damascus organized by NGO Hostage Aid Worldwide.

He also said he was encouraged because officials of the new US government had already spoken to him about his missing son.

Tice criticized the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden, saying that they did not negotiate enough for the release of his son, even in recent months.

Tice, who worked as a freelance reporter for the Washington Post and other publications, was one of the first US journalists to enter Syria after the civil war broke out in 2011.

She visited in 2015 to meet with Syrian authorities about her son, before they stopped issuing her visas.

The overthrow of veteran leader Bashar al-Assad in December by Syrian rebels allowed him to visit again from his home in Texas.

Tice added that on Sunday he met with Syria’s new leaders, who he said showed a “dedication” to return his son. “The new administration knows what we’re going through and they’re trying to make things right for people like us,” he said.

However, Tice said Assad’s ouster on December 8 has complicated the search for his son, as it has made it increasingly difficult to know where his son is being held and by whom.

“It’s like we’re back at the beginning,” he said.

“It was more than 12 years ago that I haven’t seen him or talked to him but I know he’s there. Austin if you can somehow hear this I love you. I know you’re not giving up and neither am I,” added he.

The US State Department last week said no US government organization was on the ground in Syria to participate in the search for Tice.

Tice became the subject of a massive manhunt following the ouster of Assad after 13 years of civil war in December.

US officials have expressed concerns that Tice may have been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes or may have suffocated after Assad’s forces cut power to prisons in Damascus before he leave.

He was captured in the Damascus suburb of Daraya. Reuters reported earlier that in 2013 Tice, a former Marine, managed to break out of his cell and was seen moving between houses in the streets of the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus.

He was recaptured shortly after his escape, likely by forces directly responding to Assad, current and former U.S. officials said. Syrian authorities have never confirmed that Tice is in their custody. the New York Times (NYSE:) first reported a short breakout and reversal.

Tens of thousands of Syrian prisoners have walked out of Assad’s prisons after his tyrannical rule ended.