The rapprochement between Israel and Morocco had to continue, despite the scandal. On Wednesday August 11, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited the kingdom – a first since 2003 – nearly a month after the revelation by seventeen media, including The world, and Amnesty International of the use made by the Moroccan security services of the Israeli spyware Pegasus, in order to monitor journalists and political activists, but also French targets.
The Pegasus dossier, which embarrasses the two capitals, does not appear anywhere on the agenda of this visit. In Morocco, Mr. Lapid intends to deepen the normalization of relations between the two countries, concluded in December 2020 through Washington. He thus assumes the legacy left by Benyamin Netanyahu, architect of security reconciliations and then diplomatic agreements, which since 2020 have allowed Israel to bind in broad daylight with four Arab States (the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco ), without any concessions to the Palestinians.
On Wednesday, Mr. Lapid went to the mausoleum where Kings Hassan II and Mohammed V are buried, then he met his counterpart, Nasser Bourita. He was to officially inaugurate a diplomatic representative office in Rabat on Thursday. It did not escape the kingdom that it did not receive a simple minister, but a possible future head of government. Mr. Lapid is at the origin of the coalition which deposed Mr. Netanyahu in June, after twelve years of continuous reign. According to the fragile agreement between him and his partners, he must inherit the post of prime minister in 2023.
Cooperation agreements
Of the contract signed by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO with the Moroccan state, endorsed by the Israeli defense ministry, Israeli diplomacy had nothing to say on Wednesday. No more than on the cyber defense agreement that the two states signed in July, covering “Operational cooperation, research, development and information sharing”, according to the Israeli national cybersecurity directorate.
Thanks to this contract, according to our information, an operator within the Moroccan security services seized the mobile phone numbers of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, his head of government and fourteen ministers then in office, for a possible putting under monitoring by Israeli software.
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