Syria – dwell: US vows to maintain looking for Austin Tice as UN chief calls on Israel to withdraw forces

Secretary of state Antony Blinken during his Middle East visit said efforts to locate Austin Tice, another US citizen who was abducted in Syria over a decade ago, were continuing.

“No update on Austin Tice, except to say that every single day, we are working to find him and to bring him home, making sure that the word is out to everyone that this is a priority for the United States,” Mr Blinken said.

Tice, a former US Marine and journalist, was 31 when he was kidnapped in August 2012 while reporting in Damascus.

Mr Blinken’s statement comes after an American citizen was found in Syria yesterday.

“In terms of (the) American citizen who was found just today, I can’t give you any details on exactly what’s going to happen, except to say that we’re working to bring him home, to bring him out of Syria,” Mr Blinken told reporters in Jordan.

Austria’s forced deportation of Syrian refugees back to their original homeland will only happen when it is safe, the foreign minister said.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer called for a reassessment of security in Syria to enable the return of refugees to their home country. Similar to many centre-right parties in Europe, the ruling People’s Party (OVP) is under pressure from the far-right.

Asked when the returns might happen, Alexander Schallenberg told Reuters that “when it is possible, we will do it immediately”. He added: “I don’t know (when). Can you see into the future?”

Austria was the first of more than a dozen European countries to announce a suspension on processing Syrians’ asylum applications.

Pope Francis presided over his weekly general audience on Wednesday alongside a Palestinian-crafted Nativity scene that was missing its eyebrow-raising signature element: a keffiyeh-draped manger holding the infant Jesus.

The wooden Nativity scene in the Vatican’s main audience hall had generated headlines when it was unveiled December 7 because of the presence of the keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered headscarf that has become a potent symbol of the Palestinian cause.

Pope Francis had prayed before the creche briefly that day when he greeted the artists and donors responsible for all the Vatican’s Christmas decorations this year, which include various depictions of the manger in a Bethlehem stable where Jesus is said to have been born.

Nicole Winfield reports.

Explainer | What is the Golan Heights and why is the territory so important to Israel and Syria?

The Golan Heights, situated in the southwest corner of Syria and bordering Israel, Lebanon and Jordan, is a 1,000 square mile rocky plateau around 40 miles (60 kilometres) from Damascus, although it possesses a significance far beyond that and has been a political flashpoint for decades.

Troops have also been deployed beyond the demilitarised buffer zone and into Syrian territory, with Israeli defence minister Israel Katz saying Israeli forces had been ordered to create a “sterile defence zone” in southern Syria, adding that they would not retain a permanent presence. Israel had previously described reports from Syrian sources that it had breached the buffer zone as “false”.

But what is the Golan Heights and why does Israel consider it so important?

Muawiyah Syasneh was 16 when his anti-Assad graffiti on a school wall led to his arrest, sparking protests that ended in civil war. Now, in the very same spot, he tells chief international correspondent Bel Trew about the years-long war – and his role in bringing it to an end

More than one million Syrians, mostly women and children, have been newly displaced in the embattled nation since armed rebels wrested power from president Bashar al-Assad and forced the brutal ruler to flee.

“As of 12 December, 1.1 million people have been newly displaced across the country since the start of the escalation of hostilities on 27 November. The majority are women and children,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said.

The humanitarian group said more than 400,000 people were staying in 240 collective shelters across northeastern areas of the country.

Turkey-backed rebel forces are continuing their advances in northern Syria with an aim to “clear terrorism”, a Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday.

The rebel forces are fighting a US-backed Kurdish militia in the region. Turkey has repeatedly told the US that “a terrorist organisation cannot be eliminated by using another terrorist organisation”, the source added.

The US is backing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in its fight against Islamic State. The SDF is led by a Kurdish militia regarded by Ankara as a terrorist group.

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The UN in a statement said the Israeli forces have not only moved into parts of the separation zone but also conducted a “defensive” air campaign.

Israel has captured the buffer zone on the border of Israel and Syria near Golan Heights and has launched hundreds of missiles inside Syria targeting weapons stockpiles, military facilities and airfields.

It has also bombed naval vessels off the Syrian coast.

“The secretary-general is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria,” the UN statement said, calling for urgent de-escalation “on all fronts, throughout Syria”.

Mr Guterres added it was “imperative to support credible, orderly and inclusive transitional arrangements in Syria”.

A court in the US has charged a former Syrian military official with several counts of torture for overseeing a prison where alleged human rights abuses took place.

He was arrested in July for visa fraud charges.Samir Ousman al-Sheikh, who oversaw Syria’s infamous Adra Prison from 2005 to 2008 under recently ousted president Bashar al-Assad, was charged by a federal grand jury with several counts of torture and conspiracy to commit torture.

“It’s a huge step toward justice,” said Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the US-based Syrian Emergency Task Force.

“Samir Ousman al-Sheikh’s trial will reiterate that the United States will not allow war criminals to come and live in the United States without accountability, even if their victims were not US citizens.”

For miles, the bleached ribcages of bombed-out buildings on either side of the main highway north of Damascus flick past as you drive – a grim monument to some of the fiercest battles that took place between Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebels at the start of the revolution more than a decade ago.

Now, after Assad’s stunning defeat, families, some of whom returned from fleeing the country, pick through the dust-choked rubble of what was once their homes. They gather at Jobar’s chewed-up central graveyard to host the first funeral here in 13 years.

Our chief international correspondent Bel Trew reports: