Story highlights Tice vanished in August 2012 while working as a freelance journalist in Syria

The Texan is the only American journalist still held captive in Syria, group says

(CNN) The Obama administration has "high confidence" that missing American journalist Austin Tice is alive in Syria, Sen. John Cornyn said Friday.

Freelance journalist Tice disappeared while reporting near the Syrian capital of Damascus in August, 2012.Texas Republican Cornyn, the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, said he had been briefed on the latest situation by White House hostage envoy James O'Brien.

O'Brien was able to deliver "positive, yet cautious news" about Tice, Cornyn said. O'Brien said that there is "high confidence that Austin is alive in Syria."

Sen. Cornyn: Bring Austin Tice Home | Broadcasting & Cable: https://t.co/QynEYF5zsK — JohnCornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 9, 2016

Five weeks after Tice disappeared, a 43-second video emerged online that showed him in the captivity of what his family describe as an "unusual group of apparent jihadists." There has been no public word on what has happened to him since.

Tice, a Texas native, is a veteran of the US Marine Corps and was a law student at Georgetown.

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