Israel’s Mossad chief against sharing intelligence with Saudi Arabia

Head of Israel’s Mossad Yossi Cohen is against supplying developed intelligence hardware and software to Saudi Arabia, close aides told the Jerusalem Post yesterday.

Cohen previously set the groundwork for former Israeli Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot to publicly announce a new level of cooperation between Israeli and Saudi intelligence in November 2017.

He views such links as not as much about personal trust, but about overlapping national interests”, especially when it comes to standing together against Iran, the paper explained.

Cohen is, however, against sharing sensitive Israeli technologies with the Saudis to combat the threat of drones.

Arab48 said it was not clear whether Saudi Arabia has ever requested Israeli intelligence technology and been refused, but said that the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had unveiled Israeli-Saudi partnership in the field of intelligence technology.

Reports have said that an Israeli spying software – developed by NSO – was installed on the phone of Khashoggi’s associate in an effort to track the journalist.

READ: How Israel helped murder Jamal Khashoggi