RIYADH (MEMO) – Former
Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to renew Saudi Arabia’s license to use the controversial software Pegasus in return for Riyadh opening its airspace to flights from the occupied territories, a new report has revealed.
According to the New York Times, though the sale of the software had been approved in 2017, a year later, an ethics committee called for Saudis’ access to come to an end after reports that it had been used to track down and kill Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2019, however, Pegasus was up and running again, the paper said. This came at a time when Netanyahu was negotiating to normalize relations with Arab states the UAE and Bahrain. A deal later signed in September 2020.
When Saudis’ license expired, Netanyahu personally intervened, the New York Times reports, after receiving a call from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bin Salman agreed to allow the use of Saudi air space by Zionist planes and flights heading to the occupied territories, strengthening the normalization deals signed with its Persian Gulf neighbors.
Following a call between bin Salman and Netanyahu, the Zionist war ministry called Pegasus’ parent company – the NSO Group – and ordered Saudis’ system to be turned back on, the paper added.