WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Sunday that the U.S. government believes missing American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared 12 years ago near the Syrian capital, is alive and that Washington is committed to bringing him home after Bashar Assad’s ouster from power in Damascus.

“We think we can get him back,” Biden told reporters at the White House, while acknowledging that “we have no direct evidence” of his status. “Assad should be held accountable.”

Biden said officials must still identify exactly where Tice is after his disappearance in August 2012 at a checkpoint in a contested area west of Damascus.

“We’ve remained committed to returning him to his family,” he said.

Tice, who is from Houston, has had his work published by The Washington Post, McClatchy newspapers and other outlets.

A video released weeks after Tice went missing showed him blindfolded and held by armed men and saying, “Oh, Jesus.” He has not been heard from since. Syria has publicly denied that it was holding him.

The United States has no new evidence that Tice is alive, but continues to operate under that assumption, according to a U.S. official. The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. will continue to work to identify where he is and to try to bring him home.