French President Macron calls on Israeli Prime Minister Bennett over espionage allegations

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French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett about reports that Moroccan security forces may have used Pegasus spyware to snoop on his cell phones, according to a news report.

A global media consortium reported last week that 50,000 cell phone numbers were being spied on using the Pegasus malware, which was developed by Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group. The cellphones of French President Macron and 15 members of his government may have been among the potential targets, according to a member of the media consortium.

Macron phoned Bennett on Thursday and asked him to make sure “the problem was taken seriously,” Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Saturday evening.

The Israeli prime minister said the allegations date from a period when he did not take office, but assured the required conclusions on the matter will be drawn.

Macron had called an urgent national security meeting on Thursday to discuss the Pegasus spyware after reports of its misuse were published in France. The Moroccan government has denied reports that the country’s security forces used spyware to spy on the French president. Likewise, the NSO group denied that the French president was targeted.

We can “specifically go out and say with certainty that French President Macron was not a target,” Chaim Gelfand, NSO group compliance director, told Israeli television station i24news on Wednesday.

A source close to Macron downplayed the risks, saying the French leader had several phones that were regularly changed, updated and secure.

Israel on Thursday established a committee to examine allegations of misuse of the NSO group’s surveillance software and hinted at a possible “review of the whole issue of licensing.”

The defense establishment has appointed a review committee made up of a number of bodies, ” MP Ram Ben-Barak, head of the foreign affairs and defense committee, told military radio on Thursday. of the Knessets.

When they complete their review, we will demand to see the results and assess whether we need to make any corrections, ” added Ben-Barak, who was previously deputy director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

Israel’s priority was “to review this whole licensing issue,” he said.

NSO chief executive Shalev Hulio welcomed the move, telling military radio that he “would be very happy if there was an investigation so that we can clear our name.”

Hulio claimed that there had been an effort to smear the entire Israeli cyber industry. ”

Ben-Barak noted that Pegasus helped “expose a lot of terrorist cells”, but “if it has been misused or sold to irresponsible bodies this is something we need to verify.”

The ONS chief also told the radio that his company could not disclose details of its contracts due to “confidentiality concerns,” but said “it would provide full transparency to any government seeking more details”.

“Let any state entity accompany any official from any state and I will be ready to open everything to them, for them to come in, to dig from top to bottom,” Hulio said.

(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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