The phones of presidents of France and Iraq have been targeted for possible surveillance in the Pegasus spyware case, reports said.

French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that the phone of President Emmanuel Macron has been targeted for potential surveillance on behalf of Morocco in project Pegasus spyware case.

An investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organizations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said the spyware, made and licensed by Israeli company NSO, had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the phone of Iraq’s Barham Saleh was on a list of 50,000 numbers selected for possible surveillance in the Pegasus spyware case.

The Post said that it had not been possible to determine if Israeli company NSO Group’s signature spyware, Pegasus, had infected Saleh’s phone or whether there had been any attempt to do so.

Salih was among three presidents, 10 prime ministers and a king whose phone numbers were on the list of potential surveillance targets.

Source: Agencies