Rabat – France and Israel have reportedly held talks in Paris this week, aiming to defuse the remaining tensions of the Pegasus crisis.
According to US news outlet Axios, Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata visited the French capital to meet with his French counterpart Emmannuel Bonne.
The Israeli official briefed Macron on the “ongoing Israeli government’s investigation,” and proposed solutions to end the bilateral tensions resulting from the Pegasus affair.
The Israeli proposal, according to the same source, allegedly includes a provision which prohibits the hacking of French phone numbers “in any future spyware deal between an Israeli firm and a third country.”
Following the publication of an international journalistic investigation in July of this year, allegations of espionage and cyber hacking on high ranking officials and politicians made headlines worldwide.
Relations between Israel, home to the spyware manufacturer NSO, and France, one of the targeted countries, have remained tense.
Israeli news outlet Walla reported that following the crisis, France “froze a significant part of the diplomatic, security and intelligence ties with Israel,” in addition to cancelling several high level visits.
French newspaper Le Monde had accused “an unidentified Moroccan security service” for being an NSO client, alleging that the country’s secret services targeted journalists, high ranking French officials, including France’s president Emmanuel Macron.
Chaim Gelfand, chief compliance officer at NSO Group, told Israeli television network i24news that the Israeli intelligence company can “specifically come out and say for sure that the president of France, Macron, was not a target.”
Speaking to French media AFP confidentially an anonymous source close to Macron stated that the French president’s security settings were “the tightest possible,” explaining that several of his phones were “regularly changed, updated and secured.”
Morocco’s intelligence services denied any espionage allegations, and launched a defamation lawsuit against NGOs Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories.
Both Israel and France are still investigating the allegations, to this date, no further updates are available.
