The visiting unofficial Syrian envoy, Dr. Ibrahim (Abe) Suleiman, is scheduled to meet today with a Syrian imprisoned in Israel. On Wednesday he met with Rina Hever, the mother of missing IDF soldier Guy Hever, and the author Sami Michael, the brother-in-law of Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy burried in Syria.

The issue of prisoners and missing soldiers has taken up a significant portion of Suleiman's current visit to Israel.

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Last year, Suleiman met with Nadia Cohen, Eli Cohen's widow, and delivered certain messages from her to the Syrian authorities. For more than four decades Syria has refused to transfer Cohen's remains for burial in Israel.

In the past he also met with Yona Baumel, father of Zacharia Baumel, missing in action in the 1982 Battle of Sultan Yaaqub in Lebanon.

'Help me help you'

MK Nisim Ze'ev (Shas) asked Suleiman yesterday during his appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to help bring Cohen's remains for burial in Israel.

"Help me to help you," said the visiting mediator, an American of Syrian origin. "If I met with the Syrian prisoner and bring a picture of him back I believe that this will help somewhat."

The prisoner is a Palestinian with Syrian citizenship. He is a member of Fatah and slipped into Israel in April 2005, with the declared intention to abduct an IDF soldier.