Daughter of executed Israel spy calls on UAE to help return body from Syria

The daughter of an executed Israeli spy has requested help from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to return his body from Syria.

In an interview with the i24NEWS Arabic outlet, Sophie Ben-Dor, the daughter of Israeli Mossad agent Eli Cohen, called on the UAE and its ambassador in Israel to help in the return of Cohen’s body, almost six decades after his execution at the hands of Syrian authorities in May 1965 on espionage charges.

“I am asking the Emiratis, who occupy a greater place among our country and in the international arena, to help us mediate, and to ask and reach agreements with the Syrians to return my father’s body,” Ben-Dor stated.

“I think it’s an excellent idea,” she added. “I didn’t think of it alone, but it seems to me that it’s an unusual channel, it’s also an Arab channel. And I think we will get clearer answers. And if there is a motivation, it has a chance to happen faster. There will be an official appeal from the family to the Emirati ambassador in Israel.”

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Syria has for decades refused Israel’s and the Cohen family’s efforts to retrieve the spy’s body, with the first request being by his wife Nadia in November 1965. The Cohen family also asked the Russian government for assistance last year, leading media to report at the time that Moscow was attempting to locate his remains but that that no progress had been made.

Following that failure, and amid the isolation Russia is now experiencing due to its ongoing and controversial invasion of Ukraine, the UAE is seen by the family as a potentially suitable avenue through which to retrieve the spy’s body, hoping to benefit from Abu Dhabi’s renewed relations with Damascus and its recently-normalised ties with Tel Aviv.

Ben-Dor’s request comes only weeks after Mossad Director David Barnea declassified Cohen’s final message to the intelligence agency sent prior to his capture. In the communication, which had been intercepted, Cohen told the agency that then-Syrian President Amin Al-Hafiz had met with the military high command at 5pm, which apparently provided critical intelligence contributing to Israel’s victory during the 1967 Six-Day War.

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