British Arabists Fail to Disclose Ties

• Views: 995

Many of the diplomats who condemned Tony Blair’s Iraq policy in an “open letter” have financial ties to Arab countries: Diplomats failed to disclose their own Arab links. (Thanks to all who emailed about this.)

Some of the most prominent former diplomats who condemned Tony Blair’s policies in the Middle East have business links with Arab governments, The Telegraph can reveal.

In a letter published last week, 52 former British diplomats condemned the invasion of Iraq and the Government’s support for Israel.

The letter failed to disclose, however, that several of the key signatories, including Oliver Miles, the former British ambassador to Libya who instigated the letter, are paid by pro-Arab organisations.

Some of the others hold positions in companies seeking lucrative Middle East contracts, while others have unpaid positions with pro-Arab organisations.

The disclosure last night prompted allegations - denied by the diplomats - that they were merely promoting the interests of their clients. Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, said: “If an MP had made statements like these without declaring an interest in the subject they would have been before the standards and privileges committee we would have had their guts for garters.

”This casts a very different light on what the former diplomats have said.“

The letter attacked new peace proposals announced by President Bush and Ariel Sharon as ”one-sided and illegal“. It warned that the measures would cost ”yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood“.

The signatories said they had watched with ”deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israeli problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States. There is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure“.

Mr Miles is the chairman and a director of the London-based MEC International, which promotes business opportunities in the Middle East. He has a 10 per cent holding in the company and although he draws no actual salary he will receive £10,000 this year in consultancy fees from the firm.

According to the company’s website, MEC has been commissioned to produce reports for the Saudi Arabian Export Promotions Board and the Gulf Co-operation Council. An offshoot of the firm, called AIM, has carried out work for the government of Bahrain.

The website also lists the Arab Gulf Co-operation Council, the Arab League and the National Bank of Egypt as among MEC’s clients.

Mr Miles last night insisted that he had no personal knowledge of these contracts and that they had not influenced him in drawing up the letter, although he admitted that the signatories were ”slanted” towards Arabists.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
A Closer Look at the Eastman State Bar DecisionTaking a few minutes away from work things to read through the Eastman decision. As I'm sure many of you know, Eastman was my law school con law professor. I knew him pretty well because I was also running in ...
KGxvi
32 minutes ago
Views: 38 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 0