Paris: French Defense Minister wanted to learn from his partner Israel, if any, Israel knew about the Client spyware company NSO which might target the cellphone of President Emmanuel Macron and other French government members.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met in Paris on Wednesday with French Defense Minister Florence Parly, and a French government spokesman said Parly planned to ask him about “the knowledge possessed by the Israeli government about the activities of NSO clients.” Gabriel Attal said Parly also wanted to know what steps would be taken to prevent “abuse.” France tried to reach the basis of allegations that in 2019 Macron and members of his government may have been targeted by unknown Moroccan security services, using Spyware Pegasus NSO.
Morocco has denied those reports and took legal action to counter allegations involving the Kingdom of North Africa in the spyware scandal.
NSO also denied that Macron was targeted.
Morocco, the main French allied, has led his attitude towards the allegations that it infiltrated, with Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said last week that anyone who made such claims had to show evidence or justify himself, the official news agency reported.
Morocco has filed a lawsuit for defamation of Amnesty International and non-profit stories based in Paris, which obtained a list of 50,000 cellphones is said to be a potential supervision target.
“There was talks between members of the government and their colleagues,” Attal said, added that he had no further comments because of the ongoing investigation, which he said involved inspections “serious, very technical, very technical.
Separately, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office is being Investigating the alleged use of a widespread pegasus to target journalists, human rights groups and politicians in various countries.
Parly is not expected to make public comments about his meeting with Gantz, who was in Paris on a long planned visit, a government spokesman said.
Before the meeting That, Israeli defense minister visited members of the French Jewish community to talk about an increase in antisemic attacks.
Gantz stressed that “the attack on the Jews in the world was an attack on us as a nation,” his office said.