MIDDLE EAST/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday [3-6-19] the United States is holding negotiations to try to win the release of U.S. hostages held abroad, but he declined to say in what countries. Trump made the remark at a White House event welcoming Danny Burch, an oil engineer who Trump said last month was reunited with his family after 18 months in captivity in Yemen…The Trump administration has secured the release of a number of U.S. citizens held by other countries for apparent political reasons. Trump himself put the number at 20 during his meeting in the Oval Office with Burch, who thanked the president and senior officials involved in the negotiations. A number of U.S. citizens are now held in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Most of those freed so far have been from North Korea. Pyongyang released three Americans ahead of Trump’s Singapore summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year and freed another detainee later in the year. It obtained the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson from Turkey in October.”
–Reuters, “Trump Says U.S. Negotiating on Release of Hostages Abroad,” The New York Times online, March 6, 2019