The US has unequivocally denied paying any money at all to the Syrian extremist group that until Sunday held an American journalist hostage.



Whatever prompted Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaida’s chosen affiliate in Syria, to release Peter Theo Curtis, the government of Qatar, increasingly a regional power broker, was involved.



On Sunday a United Nations spokesman said the UN facilitated the handover of Curtis, which he said took place in Al Rafid village in the Golan Heights. The spokesman said Curtis was given a medical check-up and then handed over to US government representatives.

After the Islamic State (Isis) murdered US journalist James Foley, debate re-emerged challenging the wisdom of the US government’s longstanding explicit and public prohibition on paying ransom to terrorist groups. Several European governments, including France, have broken with Washington on the ransom question, providing a policy discrepancy that the Obama administration as recently as Friday denounced as an incentive for kidnapping.

On Friday, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes forcefully rejected paying extremist groups to secure the release of US nationals.

“As a matter of policy,” he told reporters, “I think the US government remains absolutely committed to the notion that we will not provide funding for terrorist organizations that we believe that only creates perverse incentives for those terrorist organizations going forward, and a source of funding.”

On Sunday Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, told the Guardian the US remained committed to its prohibition on ransom payments.

“The US government does not make concessions to terrorists, which includes paying ransom. We did not do so in this case,” Harf said.

“We also do not support any third party paying ransom, and did not do so in this case. We are unequivocal in our opposition to paying ransom to terrorists.”

Asked what prompted Curtis’ release after 22 months in captivity, Harf said she would let “Nusra speak for itself”.



Harf said the State Department understood that Curtis’ release followed “a direct request from the Curtis family itself to the Qatari government for its assistance”.

Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, maintains a weapons pipeline to Syrian resistance groups, flying cargo planes packed with small arms and shoulder-fired missiles to Turkey en route to the rebels. The weapons shipments provide the Qataris with a measure of influence amongst extremist groups the US formally considers terrorists and with whom it, formally at least, will not negotiate.

Qatar also served as the crucial middleman in the May trade of Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the only US prisoner of war in Afghanistan, for five senior Taliban members detained at Guantánamo Bay.



“We have over the past two years reached out to over two dozen countries asking for help from anyone who may have tools, influence, or leverage that can assist in securing the release of American citizens – including Theo – held hostage in Syria,” Harf said.



News of Curtis’s release came days after fellow journalist James Foley was killed. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

The Curtis family issued a statement on Sunday, asking for news organizations to respect its privacy.



The statement said: “The Curtis family is deeply grateful to the governments of the United States and Qatar and to the many individuals, private and public, who helped negotiate the release of our son, brother and cousin.

“While the family is not privy to the exact terms that were negotiated, we were repeatedly told by representatives of the Qatari government that they were mediating for Theo’s release on a humanitarian basis without the payment of money.”