MBS Requests Spying on Ghassan Ben Jeddou, Several Figures

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The French daily Le Monde revealed Monday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked to spy on several Lebanese journalists and politicians, including President Michel Aoun, through Israeli NSO's spyware Pegasus.

Le Monde added in an investigation published today that several Lebanese political and media figures were victims of a spying attack on Saudi Arabia and the UAE's behalf between 2018-2019.

Figures included former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, president of the Free Patriotic Movement Gebran Bassil, General Director of the Lebanese General Directorate of General Security Abbas Ibrahim.

The newspaper highlighted that bin Salman also asked Pegasus to spy "on Hezbollah MPs Hassan Fadlallah, and  Ali Fayyad, in addition to the head of Hezbollah's liaison and coordination unit Wafiq Safa."

The Saudi Crown Prince also requested to spy on Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh and former Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil.

Le Monde also indicated that "Saudi Arabia and the UAE requested spying on two journalists: Ghassan Ben Jeddou and Ibrahim Al Amine."

According to the newspaper, Pegasus is able to steal content from phones, including WhatsApp and Signal messages.

The Israeli NSO group is the developer of this spyware.

Today, several governments, organizations, media outlets, and unions condemned worldwide spyware attacks carried out through Israeli Pegasus spyware, which targeted activists, journalists, and politicians.

In January 2020, The Washington Post reported, in an extensive investigation, that the UAE and Saudi Arabia were spying on journalists and activists in London and Qatar, through the Israeli Pegasus spyware.