Coded message about Israeli spy provides signs of hope in Syria

A few weeks ago, Nadia Cohen, the widow of Israel’s Mossad most renowned spy, Eli Cohen, who was caught and hanged in Damascus 60 years ago, received an emotional call. She was invited to receive the last letter her husband wrote to her before his execution.

This sensitive personal item, together with thousands of other documents related to the Syrian security forces’ handling of his case, arrived in Israel in what was described by the Mossad as a “covert and complex operation in cooperation with a strategic partner service”.

Media reports quoted multiple sources exposing that the archive was delivered to Israel with the blessing of the new Syrian president Ahmed Al-Sharaa and hinted at the involvement of the Turkish and/or Saudi intelligence services in it.

The fact that the documents were exposed just few days after the meeting between President Trump and his Syrian counterpart Al-Sharaa, during Trump’s visit in Saudi Arabi, is seen by many as another indication that Al-Sharaa was leveraging the sensitive documents as a confidence-building measure towards Washington.

This unexpected development represents the tectonic changes happening in Syria. Since the toppling of the Assad regime last December, Al-Sharaa is running a months-long campaign aimed at gaining international legitimacy and easing Israel’s fear from Syria becoming a major military threat.

From Israel’s point of view, the rise to power of Al-Sharaa triggered reasonable suspicion. After all, the man was known for years under the nom de guerre of Al- Jolani, a wanted Al-Qaida commander with a $US10 million bounty due to his part in the uprising against the American presence in Iraq.