"Israel", Assad regime reportedly communicated for years via WhatsApp

The Israeli occupation has allegedly engaged in covert communications with the ousted regime of Bashar Al-Assad in recent years through the messaging platform WhatsApp, according to a report by Anadolu Agency (AA) citing Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report indicates that "Israel" undertook secret operations to establish contact with Assad and his close associates, using "Israeli" intelligence agents who posed as "Musa" to send messages. These communications reportedly reached senior officials in Damascus.

One significant operation aimed to negotiate a clandestine agreement in which Assad would cease the transfer of weapons to Lebanon in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions imposed on his regime.

Notably, by the end of 2019, Yossi Cohen, then head of "Israel's" intelligence agency Mossad, was scheduled to meet with Assad in the Kremlin; however, Assad ultimately canceled the meeting.

Additionally, the Military Intelligence Directorate, known as Aman, is said to have sent messages to then-Syrian Defense Minister Ali Abbas following Israeli Occupation airstrikes targeting sites alleged to be linked to Iran or Hezbollah in Syria.

For decades, Israel has maintained control over various territories in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, consistently rejecting calls for withdrawal and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.