Publications

In December 2020, several Arab media outlets reported that an unusual meeting between Syrian and Israeli officials was held at Russia’s Hmeimim Air Base on the Syrian coast. According to the reports, the delegations included the head of the Syrian National Security Bureau, Ali Mamlouk, and his special advisor for security and strategic affairs, Major General Bassam Hassan, while from Israel, both Lt. Gen. (ret.) Gadi Eisenkot, former chief of the general staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and former Israeli military intelligence official Ari Ben-Menashe attended.^[i] This was presented as part of a Russian effort to promote a normalization agreement between Syria and Israel.