An American newspaper revealed that the phone of Iraqi President Barham Salih was on a list of 50,000 numbers chosen for the possibility of targeting their owners by monitoring with the "Pegasus" spy program.

The Washington Post reported that it was not possible to verify whether the Pegasus program - which is produced by the Israeli company "NSO" - had infected Saleh's phone, or whether any attempt had been made.

Saleh was among 3 presidents, 10 prime ministers and a king whose phones were put on a list of potential surveillance targets.

A spokesman for the Israeli company did not respond to a request for comment on the newspaper's report.

These results came within the framework of an international investigation, the results of which were published last Sunday, in which the Washington Post and 16 other media organizations, including the French newspapers Le Monde, the German “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and the British Guardian (The Guardian), in addition to a list obtained On it, Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International.

The investigation revealed that the Pegasus program was used to hack the phones of journalists, officials and activists in different parts of the world.

That list - published by international newspapers and media - includes about 50,000 phone numbers believed to belong to people considered by the Israeli company, NSO, for intelligence software, of interest since 2016.

The list includes the numbers of at least 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 businessmen, according to the analysis conducted by the group. It was confirmed that 37 phones were hacked or attempted to penetrate the Israeli group's spyware program.

The Israeli company was founded in 2011 in north Tel Aviv, and its spyware program, when penetrated into the phone, allows access to messages, photos, contacts and even listen to calls.