Reuters: The Syrian transitional president agreed to give the Israeli Spy Eli Cohen archive to Israel to calm the tensions and build trust with Trump
Reuters reported that the Syrian leadership has agreed to hand over the belongings of long-dead spy Eli Cohen to Israel in an attempt to ease Israeli hostility and show goodwill to US President Donald Trump.
Israel announced on Sunday that it had recovered a trove of documents, photos, and personal belongings related to Cohen, saying the Mossad spy agency worked with an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to secure the materials.
However, a Syrian security source, an advisor to Syrian transitional President Ahmed al Sharaa, and a person familiar with backroom talks between the Syria and Israel said the archive of material was actually offered to Israel as an indirect gesture by al Sharaa in his effort to calm tensions and build Trump’s confidence.
Israel hasn’t publicly revealed how it obtained the archive, saying only that it was the result of a “complex and secret operation carried out by the Mossad, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence agency”.
Netanyahu’s office, Syrian officials, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Syria’s role in Israel’s recovery of the Cohen archive.
After the al Sharaa-led rebels suddenly ousted Bashar al Assad in December, they found Cohen’s file in a state security building, according to a Syrian security source.
The source added that al Sharaa and his foreign advisors quickly decided to use these materials as a means of pressure.
The Syrian security source said that al Sharaa realized that the Cohen archive was important to the Israelis and that its return could constitute an important diplomatic gesture.
This month, Reuters reported that the United Arab Emirates had established a back channel for talks between Israel and Syria, which included efforts to build confidence between the two sides.
There were also other indirect channels for conversations, according to two people familiar with the matter.
During the talks, Syria agreed to measures that included the return of Cohen’s remains, as well as those of three Israeli soldiers killed while fighting Syrian forces in Lebanon in the early 1980s, according to a source familiar with those talks.
Last week, Israel announced the return of the remains of one of those soldiers, Zvi Feldman.
The source added that the return of Cohen’s archive came as part of these confidence-building measures and was done with the direct approval of Ahmed al Sharaa.
Syrian officials have said they want peace with all countries in the region, and al Sharaa confirmed this month that Damascus had held indirect talks with Israel through countries with which it has relations to calm the situation.
