The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Syrian regime’s government said that the “American accusations” regarding the arrest of American citizen Austin Tice are baseless and represent a “deliberate distortion of facts.”

The ministry added, following a day of the US Department of State commemorating the 12th anniversary of Tice’s arrest, on Thursday, August 15, that the talk about the arrest of the former American army officer Austin Tice, and the claim that he was working as a journalist and entered Syria and went missing there, are “false accusations,” according to what was published by the official Syrian news agency (SANA).

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement, the accusations regarding Tice or other Americans “have no basis in truth and represent a deliberate distortion of facts, continuing the approach of this American administration in casting accusations against Syria.”

The ministry stated that the United States “violates Syrian lands’ sovereignty,” supports separatist militias and “terrorist” groups (referring to the Syrian Democratic Forces “SDF”), loots Syrian resources, and imposes “unilateral coercive measures” that cause suffering to Syrians.

The Foreign Ministry’s statement came in response to American statements on August 14 of this year on the anniversary of Tice’s arrest, where US President Joe Biden said that his administration has repeatedly pressured the “Syrian government” (referring to the regime’s government) to work together to return journalist Austin Tice to his homeland.

Biden called in a statement published on the official website of the White House for the immediate release of Tice.

For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the Syrian regime to work with the United States to end the captivity of Austin Tice and provide a report on the fate of other Americans who disappeared in Syria.

The US Embassy in Syria also confirmed these calls on Thursday, noting that 12 years have passed since the kidnapping of the American journalist.

Austin Tice is a photojournalist and a former Marine who traveled to Syria to cover events for American media outlets, including CBS and The Washington Post, according to a statement from the FBI.

Austin Tice was arrested at a checkpoint outside Damascus on August 13, 2012. A private source told Enab Baladi earlier that Tice had met with a group of civil activists and members of the Free Syrian Army in Darayya, south of Damascus, before his disappearance, conducted an exclusive interview with them, and prepared his report. He was then escorted out of the city by the members, after which he disappeared.