Pegasus spyware issue India's internal matter: Naor Gilon

New Delhi: Israel does not allow companies like NSO to sell their products to non-governmental actors, newly-appointed Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon said on Thursday while describing the row over the alleged use of the firm's spyware Pegasus in India as an internal matter of the country.

His comments at a press conference came a day after the Supreme Court appointed a three-member committee to investigate the alleged use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indian citizens including journalists, activists and politicians.

"I will not go into more details...NSA (Group) is a private Israeli company. Every export of NSO or such companies needs an export licence of the Israeli government. We grant this export licence only for exporting to governments," he said.

"This is the only main requirement...Under the requirements, they cannot sell it to non-governmental actors. What's happening here in India is an internal thing for India and I would rather not go into your internal



matters," Gilon said.

He was replying to questions over allegations of unauthorised surveillance using NSO Group's spyware Pegasus and whether the Indian government contacted Israel over the issue.

An international investigative consortium had claimed that many Indian ministers, politicians, activists, businessmen and journalists were potentially targeted by the NSO Group's phone hacking software.

The Supreme Court has set up a three-member independent expert panel to probe the alleged use of Pegasus for targeted surveillance in India, observing the state cannot get a "free pass" every time the spectre of national security is raised.

Asked about the new quadrilateral grouping comprising India, Israel, the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the envoy said it is focused on cooperation in areas of the economy, trade, infrastructure and technology among others and that there is "no military element" to it.