According to a new report by the New York Times last Friday, a phone call took place in 2020 between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and then-Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, prior to the announcement of the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords between Israel and two GCC states.
According to the report, the phone call was initiated by Saudi Arabia which was then trying to renew its expired license for the controversial spyware Pegasus, which is developed by the Israeli technology firm NSO.
Long but detailed article
— Kristian Ulrichsen (@Dr_Ulrichsen) January 28, 2022
- suggests Pegasus offered to MBZ in 2013 to repair Israel's standing in UAE after 2010 Hamas killing in Dubai
- suggests MBS called Netanyahu in 2020 to reactivate the Saudi license in return for opening Saudi airspace to Israelhttps://t.co/O1Gu8g1Isi
The report also notes that the renewal of the Saudi license for Pegasus was made in exchange for opening Saudi airspace for Israel in September 2020. Saudi Arabia had paid around $55 million USD in 2017 for the spyware.
The spyware later sparked wide controversies especially after being highlighted for its role in tracking and spying on journalists who were either imprisoned such as women's rights activist Loujain Alhathloul, or ones who were killed, most famously the Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
In December 2021, NSO was blacklisted by the US after being recognized as one of the tools used to spy on US diplomats.
Your reminder that MBS ordered the murder of a journalist, that this is undeniably an act of terrorism, and that in the real world we (the US, Israel, etc) do not at all mind dealing with terrorists, selling them weapons & tools to spy on their own citizens etc… https://t.co/G6NdsuklP9
— Remi Brulin (@RBrulin) January 29, 2022
However, the NYT report has confirmed the earlier ones made by Haaretz and other Israeli publications, pointing at direct contact between Israel and the Saudi Prince often regarded as the de facto ruler of the country, despite the Saudi official repeated announcement that it has no plans to normalize ties with Israel except on the basis of the 2002 Arab Initiative put by former Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, conditioning normalization with the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a statement denying the findings made by the NYT report, calling it "a fabrication."
The report reignited conversations over the reality of the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Israel, questioning whether or not the two are approaching official normalization or if they prefer to keep some form of "secret ties" until they are ready to announce formal normalization, especially after the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have normalized relations with Israel in 2020, following deals brokered by former US President Donald Trump.
