While some are hoping that progress can be made in the last three weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, families are also now looking to the incoming government to continue efforts to ensure their families’ freedom. The Biden team promised to “work tirelessly” to reunite the families.
For the families of these individuals, every day brings more anxiety and worry. Some have been separated for years, they have not missed birthdays and holidays, the birth of grandchildren and other important milestones.
“We have an empty seat for my father, and now we’re four years from that empty seat. And hopefully, knowing that President-elect Biden cares for families, we hope he cares for the families of the detainees. bring them home proactively and aggressively, ”he said.
His sister, Maryam Kamalmaz, told CNN that they “still hope the Trump administration will be productive until their last day, but we hope the Biden administration will be able to act exactly where the Trump administration left off.” “
Marc and Debra Tice, the parents of journalist Austin Tice, who went missing in Syria in 2012, told CNN that their request from the US government remains the same regardless of who is in charge.
“Our plea is simple: we are asking the governments of the Syrian Arab Republic and the United States to make every possible diplomatic effort to bring Austin home safely,” they said.
Some of the Trump administration’s efforts to liberate Americans have been publicly reported. Two senior government officials have barely held direct talks in Damascus as part of an effort to release Americans like Tice and Kamalmaz, who are believed to be detained by the Assad regime.
“I know it demands him”
“I have no higher priority in what remains of the Trump administration than to plead for Paul (Whelan) and do everything in our power to release him,” Sullivan said last week, noting that “we also need a willing interlocutor to participate in discussions about what would be possible and acceptable at a distance, something a US president can agree on. ‘
His mother, Paula Reed, said the ball was in Russian court regarding Trevor’s release. Meanwhile, she is worried about her son’s well-being and tells CNN that she ‘can already hear a change in his personality’ during their calls.
“He’s not the happy man, although he always pays attention to telling me he’s fine and does not have to worry about him, I can only, I know it takes its toll,” she said.
Elizabeth Whelan told CNN that she was also concerned about her brother’s continued imprisonment.
“We want to give the Trump administration every opportunity to come up with something, to work something out with the Russian authorities before the end of President Trump’s term, but it’s getting closer pretty quickly,” she said, noting that apparent lack of movement on the matter is “extremely worrying.”
“Every day that passes is another day in Paul’s life that he spends without any guilt in a Russian prison,” she said.
‘Very difficult to solve’
Peter Bergen, vice president at the National Security Analyst of New America and CNN, noted that the complexity of some issues, such as that of Tice, is “extremely difficult to resolve” regardless of the administration, due to other complex factors such as broader policy considerations. . “There are other foreign policy issues that could be bigger than the hostage issue,” Bergen said.
However, Bergen noted that there is a kind of a long and honorable tradition in America, around hostage issues and the fight against terrorism in general, where Republicans and Democrats are very much in agreement about what to do and who to do it. . “
Bergen also told CNN: “The way the government is dealing with the hostage families is significantly better than it was at the center of the Obama administration,” when President Barack Obama was heavily criticized for handling the affairs of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and humanitarian workers Kayla Mueller and Peter Kassig. All four were detained and killed by ISIS in Syria, and their deaths led to a 2015 review of U.S. hostage-taking policies.
“Mr Biden knows us. He and the whole of America felt the horror with us when the journalist James Foley was abducted by ISIS, brutally tortured and killed, and when Bob Levinson was taken hostage by the Iranian regime and taken prisoner, without contact with the outside world for 13 long years, ‘they wrote.
“Our families know President-elect Biden’s condolences on his time in Congress and as Vice President,” they continued. “But we also believe that he and the American public agree that more could be done to bring Jim, Bob and too many others home alive. There is still so much work to be done.”
The two said it was’ essential to maintain continuity where possible, including a joint review with the outgoing administration of all active cases of Americans held hostage and illegally detained abroad ‘in order’ to ensure that no momentum or information is not lost. ‘
Their piece set out a series of requests, including the swift appointment of the Special Envoy for Hostages, the senior director of the National Security Council for Combating Terrorism, and the director of the hostage recovery merger, and ‘that an agreement be reached with foreign entities the recovery of Americans before and in the middle, not as an afterthought. ‘
Margole Ewen, executive director of the Foley Foundation, told CNN that they will meet with incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan next week.
“We will work tirelessly”
Many of the families who spoke to CNN expressed optimism about the continuity of the efforts to free their loved ones.
According to her, ‘the biggest goal here is to maintain as much momentum as possible and keep it going through the course of the transition and that the plan seems to be working and that there are promising signs that the new incoming team has so much value to my family’s freedom as the current government has it. ‘
Ned Price, spokesman for the transition, told CNN that “the Biden-Harris government will have no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans – both at home and around the world.”
“We will work tirelessly to unite Americans who are being treated unfairly against their families and other loved ones,” Price said.
Many of the officials working on the hostage and prisoner affairs are government workers in the careers, but some – such as the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostages (SPEHA) – are political appointees.
The families who spoke to CNN praised the current special envoy, Roger Carstens, and some said they would like to see him stay in the role after Biden took office, at least in an interim capacity. . A source close to Carstens indicated he would be willing to stay on.
“Our goal is and will always be to support the families of American hostages and illegal prisoners with all available resources and resources,” Carstens said.