Marie-Laure Buisson, author of “Espionnes”, was the guest of franceinfo

Joshua Zarka, the Israeli ambassador to France, was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, November 12, after the arrest of two French gendarmes by Israeli police last Thursday in Jerusalem. These gendarmes were then responsible for protecting the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot. “When there is a problem, and there was indeed one, the first response (…) is to summon the ambassador”explains Marie-Laure Buisson, author of the book Spiesand reserve colonel of the air force, on franceinfo. This is a standard procedure “when there is friction between two nations, and in this case, there was one, since the two gendarmes who were arrested were considered diplomatic personnel, and therefore that poses a problem”she continues, describing the summons of Joshua Zarka as “first reaction”.

What could be the consequences? “There is a graduation scale”explains Marie-Laure Buisson. After the ambassador was summoned, “there is the recall of one’s own ambassador, (…) and then after that, there is the diplomatic break, but obviously, we are not there yet”underlines the air force reserve colonel.

“But I’m not here to talk politics”explained the guest, recalling that she is “holding a duty of reserve”. The author then spoke about her work, dedicated to female secret agents. “An intelligence operation is always an operation that is set up well in advance”she explained, returning in particular to the explosion of the pagers of Hezbollah officials in Lebanon. “What I talk about in my book are these methods used by all countries which have intelligence services (…) and which work to always be three steps ahead of the enemy.”

Watch the full interview in the video above.