Israel reportedly engaged in secret communications with ousted Assad regime via WhatsApp

Israel reportedly maintained secret communications with the ousted Bashar Assad regime in recent years using the messaging app WhatsApp, according to a Friday report by Israeli media outlet Yedioth Ahronoth.

The report claims that Israeli intelligence agents, posing as “Musa,” used WhatsApp to establish covert contact with Assad and his inner circle, with messages allegedly reaching high-ranking officials in Damascus.

One covert operation reportedly sought to negotiate a secret deal in which Assad would halt the transfer of weapons to Lebanon in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions on his regime.

Mossad chief meeting with Assad in Kremlin

The report also noted that Yossi Cohen, then-chief of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, was scheduled to meet Assad in the Kremlin by the end of 2019. However, Assad reportedly backed out of the meeting.

Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate, known as Aman, is said to have sent the messages to then-Syrian Defense Minister Ali Abbas following Israeli airstrikes on targets claimed to be linked to Iran or Hezbollah in Syria.

Assad, Syria’s regime leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia after anti-regime forces took control of Damascus on Dec. 8, effectively ending the Baath Party’s nearly six-decade rule.

The takeover occurred after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured key cities in a lightning offensive lasting less than two weeks.

Israel continues to occupy territories in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, and rejects calls to withdraw or recognize an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on pre-1967 borders.