The French President Emmanuel Macron has declared the alleged cyber attack with the Israeli espionage software Pegasus a case for national security.

On Thursday he convened an extraordinary defense council at the Elysée Palace.

The confidential body that meets above the nuclear weapons command center "Jupiter" otherwise meets in special sessions in the event of terrorist attacks or urgent foreign military operations.

The participants, in addition to the ministers for foreign policy and defense, the most important intelligence chiefs and the army chief of staff, are subject to strict secrecy.

Michaela Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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Government spokesman Gabriel Attal stressed on Thursday that the allegations are viewed as very serious.

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced in the National Assembly that "several investigations" are ongoing, the results of which are not yet known.

It is expected that the long-time French ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, will be heard by the investigators.

When he left active service in 2019, the prominent diplomat was recruited by the Israeli NSO Group with the title of chief advisor.

His official mandate was to “protect freedoms”.

Macrons mobile phone number on NSO list

The advisory job of the retired top diplomat, who also served as France's ambassador to Israel, caused some irritation. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said at the time, visibly annoyed, that Araud could do whatever he wanted in retirement. Little did Le Drian know at the time that his cell phone number, like President Macron's, would be on an NSO list. Araud was recruited by NSO along with a former security advisor to President Obama, Juliette Kayyem, and the first US Secretary of State for "Homeland Security", Tom Ridge, to prepare for a lawsuit.

The secretive company from Herzliya near Tel Aviv was sued by Whatsapp in a Californian court in October 2019 for computer fraud, trespassing and violation of the user conditions. Whatsapp CEO Will Cathcart wrote in a guest post in the Washington Post that he had evidence that the NSO Group helped install Pegasus spy software through Whatsapp accounts. Around 100 journalists, lawyers and NGO employees were spied on in this way.

Last summer, Californian judge Phyllis Hamilton upheld the Facebook subsidiary's lawsuit, and the trial is still ongoing. “Pegasus is surveillance technology that won't go away. I therefore considered taking a closer look at them and trying to civilize them, "Araud justified his consulting contract at the end of 2019. His American adviser colleague, Harvard professor Kayyem, terminated her consulting contract in February 2020. She had previously been heavily criticized for wanting to lead a seminar on freedom of the press at Harvard.