An American turned up in Syria on Thursday, saying he was jailed for seven months after illegally walking into the country from Lebanon while on a Christian pilgrimage.
Travis Timmerman, 29, was among thousands of people rebels released from Syria's notorious prisons last weekend as the rebels swept toward the capital, Damascus, and overthrew strongman Bashar al-Assad, ending his family's iron-fisted 54-year rule.
Timmerman was initially mistaken by some for Austin Tice, an American journalist who went missing in Syria 12 years ago and has yet to be found after the rebel takeover and Assad's flight to asylum in Russia.
In a video, Timmerman was seen lying on a mattress under a blanket in what appeared to be a private house. A group of men in the video said that he was being treated well and would be safely returned home. It was not immediately clear where Timmerman had been held.
U.S. officials said they were working to confirm Timmerman's identity and provide him support. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Jordan that the White House was "working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria" but declined further comment for privacy reasons.
"I can't give you any details on exactly what's going to happen," he said.
In a later interview with the Al-Arabiya TV network, Timmerman said he had illegally crossed into Syria on foot from the eastern Lebanese town of Zahle before being detained and held in a cell alone.
Timmerman said he had been treated well but could hear other young men being tortured.
"It was OK. I was fed. I was watered. The one difficulty was that I couldn't go to the bathroom when I wanted to," he said. Timmerman said he was allowed to go only three times a day.
"I was not beaten, and the guards treated me decently," he said.
Austin Tice’s case
The U.S. government's top hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, traveled to Lebanon earlier this week in hopes of collecting information on the whereabouts of Tice.
President Joe Biden has said U.S. officials believe Tice is alive and are committed to bringing him home, although he also acknowledged on Sunday that "we have no direct evidence" of his status. The case has frustrated U.S. intelligence officials for years.
On Thursday, Blinken emphasized the Biden administration's work on Tice's case.
"Every single day we are working to find him and to bring him home," Blinken said. "This is a priority for the United States."
Tice disappeared at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus in August 2012 as the Syrian civil war intensified.
A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men. He hasn't been heard from since. Assad's government denied that it was holding him.
Blinken said that with the overthrow of Assad, "For the first time in decades, Syria has an opportunity to have a government that is not dominated by a dictator."
He added, "It's not dominated by one religion or one ethnic group. It's not dominated by an outside power. It's not dominated by [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria], but that, in fact, is run by and answered to the Syrian people, and we're determined to do everything we can, working in close coordination with partners to help the Syrian people realize that aspiration."
Golan Heights buffer zone
Earlier Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that Israeli forces will remain in a Syrian buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights until a force on the Syrian side can guarantee security.
The Israeli troops advanced from their side of the Golan Heights into the zone and onto the Syrian side after the rebels ousted Assad.
"Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with October 7-style attacks," Netanyahu's office said.
The Israeli move has been criticized by the United Nations as a violation of a 1974 agreement that defines lines separating Israeli and Syrian forces with a U.N.-monitored buffer area in between.
France, Iran, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have also criticized the Israeli move, and the United States has said it is important for the deployment to be temporary.
Revenge against torturers
The main commander of the Syrian fighters who deposed Assad said Wednesday that anyone involved in the torture and killing of people whom Assad detained during his rule would be hunted down, with pardons out of the question.
"We will pursue them in Syria, and we ask countries to hand over those who fled so we can achieve justice," Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said in a statement published on the Syrian state TV's Telegram channel.
Golani’s vow to extract revenge against Assad’s lieutenants of torture and death came as the world is watching to see if Syria's new rulers can stabilize the country after civil war fought for nearly 14 years along sectarian and ethnic lines has left it in shambles.
Mohammed al-Bashir, the man installed by Jolani's fighters to lead an interim administration through March 1, pleaded with millions of refugees to return home, create unity and provide basic services. But rebuilding is a daunting proposition with little funding on hand.
"In the coffers, there are only Syrian pounds worth little or nothing. One U.S. dollar buys 35,000 of our coins," Bashir told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
"We have no foreign currency, and as for loans and bonds, we are still collecting data. So yes, financially we are very bad," said Bashir, who previously ran a small rebel-led administration in a pocket of northwestern Syria.
But Bashir said the Islamist-led alliance that ousted Assad will guarantee the rights of all religious groups.
"Precisely because we are Islamic, we will guarantee the rights of all people and all sects in Syria," Bashir said.
More than 500,000 people were killed in the war, with more than half the population forced to flee their homes. About 6 million Syrians sought refuge abroad.
Bashir pleaded with those who fled the violence to return home. In his interview with Corriere della Sera, he said, "Syria is now a free country that has earned its pride and dignity. Come back."
Foreign officials are warily engaging with the former rebels, part of the former al-Qaida affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which remains designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and others.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the new government must "uphold clear commitments to fully respect the rights of minorities, facilitate the flow of humanitarian assistance to all in need, prevent Syria from being used as a base for terrorism or posing a threat to its neighbors."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, "It's our duty to do everything to support different Syrian leaders in order to make sure that they come together, they are able to guarantee a smooth transition."
But the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the security situation in Syria remains volatile. The agency said it has found more than 50 minefields over the past 10 days, which is curtailing the movement of civilians and impeding the delivery of goods and services.
Some information for this report was provided by from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
