White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Tuesday confirmed reports of at least one other American hostage being held in the Middle East.
"We have avoided discussing the individual cases of Americans who are being held hostage, but we are aware of other American hostages being held in the region," Earnest said during a briefing when asked about the report of another US hostage.
"I am not going to get into the specific discussions of the cases of individuals who are being held hostage, principally because we do not believe it is in their best interest for me to discuss them publicly," he said.
"I know there have been public reports of at least one other hostage, American hostage that has been held in Syria." It is the conclusion of US national security professionals that it is not beneficial to highlight the circumstances of individual citizens held hostage, Earnest said.
"I know that there are families who are in this unthinkably tragic situation, who have different strategies for talking about this publicly, and because of the sympathy that I feel for them and because of how difficult it must be to deal with this situation, I am not going to stand up here and second-guess or judge the way that individual families are talking about this publicly or not talking about it publicly," Earnest said.
"But what I will say is that our national security professionals have concluded that it is not helpful for me in this context to be discussing the cases or the names of individuals who are being held against their will in that region of the world," he said.