debkafile Exclusive: Ibrahim (Abe) Suleiman, hailed in Jerusalem as a peace mediator, is a Syrian intelligence agent employed by national security
Suleiman, who was invited on April 12 for a rare briefing to the Knesset foreign affairs and security committee on Syrian peace intentions, arrived in Damascus on May 4 and was asked to report to president Bashar Assad. Our Middle East sources report he spent two hours describing in detail his talks in Jerusalem, his private conversations and his impressions of individual Israeli officials. Suleiman’s patron Gen. Muhammed Nasif was present.
“Abe” went over his report again for Syrian vice president Farouk a-Shara. After these top-level interviews in Damascus, Suleiman flew back to his permanent base in Washington.
The Syrian agent had not been received by the president before but he used his invitation to the Knesset panel as passport to the big time in Damascus.
It worked out conveniently for him. Twenty-four hours earlier, Syrian foreign minister Walid Mouallem met US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice at the Sharm el Sheik conference on Iraq. debkafile‘s Middle East sources note that Syrian leaders were disappointed in the way Moallem’s meeting with Rice turned out. They complained she had been extremely tough and shown not the slightest sign of easing up on Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian issue.
Assad, who does not make a habit of personally interviewing intelligence officers, found it important at this time to find out what Suleiman had garnered in Jerusalem.