Sophie Ben-Dor, daughter of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, in an interview with the i24NEWS Arabic channel urged the United Arab Emirates and its ambassador to Israel to help retrieve her father's body from Syria, where he was executed in 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," she said.
i24 added that Syria has refused to return Cohen's body to Israel, noting that his wife, Nadia, requested in November 1965 that his body be returned, but her request was denied.
The report also noted that Cohen's family asked the Russian government last year to help retrieve the body and cited Arab media as reporting in 2021 that Russia was searching for the remains but added that no progress had actually been made on the matter.
In the interview, Ben-Dor said she hoped to appeal to the UAE now that Russia has become increasingly isolated following its widely criticized invasion of Ukraine.
