{"id":12567,"date":"2023-04-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/?p=12567"},"modified":"2023-05-16T09:58:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T08:58:00","slug":"how-tony-blair-sealed-uk-relations-with-egypts-dictatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/how-tony-blair-sealed-uk-relations-with-egypts-dictatorship\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tony Blair sealed UK relations with Egypt\u2019s dictatorship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tony Blair\u2019s visit to Egypt in April 1998 was his first trip to the Middle East since being elected prime minister the previous year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Cairo, Blair promoted British arms exports, attended the signing ceremony of a new energy deal with British Gas and announced the creation of an Egyptian British Business Council, telling a business audience that \u201cwe should do more together\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategy marked a step change from British policy under Blair’s predecessor, John Major. In July 1995, with Major\u2019s Conservative government still in power, the Foreign Office wrote that \u201cwe have friendly but not [sic] particularly substantive relationship with the Mubarak regime\u201d, declassified files show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blair government sought to remedy two problems that had arisen between the two countries.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were described in February 1998 by Dominick Chilcott, foreign secretary Robin Cook’s private secretary, who wrote: \u201cMubarak is said to have [taken] umbridge at the lack of high level contact with the government since the election and has been exercised about the presence of Islamic extremists in London\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe lack of contact at the highest level galls the Egyptians\u201d, Chilcott added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilcott, now Britain\u2019s ambassador to Turkey, was referring to Mubarak’s accusation that the UK was harbouring Islamic militants, who had targeted Egypt in November 1997 when terrorists killed over 60 people in Luxor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mubarak specifically pointed to Yasser al-Sirri who had been convicted in absentia in Egypt in 1994 for attempting to assassinate its prime minister and was living in the UK after applying for asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RELATED<\/h3>\n
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UK aid helps Egypt\u2019s dictator privatise \u2018protected sectors\u2019 of economy<\/h2><\/a>\n READ MORE <\/i><\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Despotism<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

British officials had few illusions about Mubarak, who had held absolute power for 17 years since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. In advance of Blair\u2019s visit, Sir David Blatherwick, the UK\u2019s ambassador in Cairo, wrote a long analysis of the situation in Egypt, describing it as \u201cin effect a paternalistic despotism\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that Mubarak, who was \u201cshrewd\u201d and \u201cwell informed\u201d, was also \u201cvery much in control of what happens in Egypt\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“The survival of the regime, is in our interest”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Blatherwick had earlier written that \u201cMubarak is Pharaoh\u201d, adding that \u201call important decisions, and many others, go to him personally\u201d and that \u201che is surrounded by people who (mostly) protect him from bad news or unwelcome advice\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the ambassador added that \u201cMubarak\u2019s survival, or failing that the survival of the regime, is in our interest\u201d. Not the least of the reasons for this was \u201cthe potential of the Egyptian market\u201d and \u201cthe good scope for business here\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under John Major, the Foreign Office had written that in Egypt the \u201cpolitical system is dominated by the ruling party\u201d while \u201copposition parties have been rendered impotent by government restrictions\u201d. Added to this were \u201callegations of corruption involving ministers and members of Mubarak\u2019s own family\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018T<\/strong>ight grip of the security apparatus\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mubarak’s repression was well-documented. In its annual review of Egypt for 1998, Human Rights Watch wrote<\/a>: \u201cAuthorities showed no sign of loosening the tight grip of the security apparatus, and documentation of its impunity \u2014 including torture, deaths in custody, ‘disappearances’, and abysmal prison conditions \u2014 filled the pages of reports published by Egyptian human rights organisations\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added: \u201cNor did the government take any significant steps to provide additional space to independent institutions, or peaceful political opponents and critics.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of this seemed to matter to Blair. The briefing documents that have been declassified pay scant attention to such concerns or to human rights. Rather, in a speech in Cairo on 18 April, Blair chose to directly praise the Egyptian dictator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cEgypt has been a pioneer in promoting peace and stability across the region. I pay tribute to the leadership he [Mubarak] has shown\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lobbying for BAE<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Briefs prepared for Tony Blair urged him to \u201craise defence sales prospects\u201d given that Egypt was an \u201cenormous importer of military equipment\u201d. These \u201cprospects\u201d included military radios, armoured vehicles and Hawk aircraft, officials wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Blair met Mubarak for 90 minutes on the first day of the trip he told him \u201cdefence cooperation was\u2026 good\u201d and that he would ask the ambassador \u201cto follow up some points in more detail\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blair did so himself. Following his visit, he directly lobbied Mubarak on behalf of BAE Systems – or British Aerospace Defence Systems as it was then called. On 20 July 1998, the British prime minister wrote a personal letter to Mubarak asking Egypt to buy military radios from BAE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy purpose in writing is to support this British bid\u201d, Blair wrote, adding that \u201cBAE has an excellent product\u201d. The deal would be \u201can excellent opportunity to strengthen further the industrial partnership between our two countries\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blair\u2019s government subsequently approved<\/a> 550 arms exports licences worth \u00a365m to Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Letter from Tony to Blair to Hosni Mubarak, 20 July 1998, in National Archives<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Energy business<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
British Gas (BG) chief executive David Varney wrote to Blair in early April 1998 asking if he would attend the signing of a new deal with his corporation to set up the Nile Valley Gas Company while he was in Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Blair did so, Varney thanked him saying \u201cYour presence was invaluable in raising BG\u2019s profile in Egypt\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The brief prepared for Blair by officials noted that a key aim of his visit to Egypt was \u201cto develop our economic relations with what is emerging as an important market\u201d. Egypt was one of the government’s 12 target markets and, in particular, \u201cbig new reserves of gas off the north coast are coming on stream (Shell and British gas are both deeply involved)\u201d, Blatherwick wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new body that Blair launched to promote trade and investment – the Egyptian British Business Council – was \u201cwarmly welcomed by the Egyptians\u201d, one UK official wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK side of the new council was headed by the chair of HSBC, Stephen Green, and it consisted of senior executives from corporations such as Shell, British Gas, Unilever and Barclays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The council\u2019s vice chair was Sir Peter de la Billiere, the former director of the SAS who was now with the merchant bank, Robert Flemings Holdings. De la Billiere clearly had high level access to the Egyptian regime: one declassified document shows he personally met Mubarak in March 1997. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Note from Cherie Blair to Suzanne Mubarak, 22 April 1998, in National Archives<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Cherie thanks the president<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Blair\u2019s wife, Cherie, accompanied him on his visit and the declassified files contain a draft written note from her to Mubarak\u2019s wife, Suzanne. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cherie Blair thanked Suzanne Mubarak for her hospitality, writing: \u201cI so enjoyed seeing the pyramids and the wonderful flight in the helicopter. Please thank the President from me\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
“I so enjoyed seeing the pyramids and the wonderful flight in the helicopter”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In the note, written on Downing Street headed paper, Cherie Blair also told Suzanne Mubarak she hoped \u201cto persuade Tony to consider a family holiday in Egypt\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She evidently succeeded. Four years later, in 2002, Tony and Cherie holidayed<\/a> at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh “as a guest of the Egyptian government”. The return flights were paid for by Mubarak’s government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Laid the foundations\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After the visit, Blair wrote to Mubarak thanking him for the \u201cwonderful hospitality\u201d and saying: \u201cI\u2026 believe we have laid the foundations for even better and closer relations between Britain and Egypt\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blatherwick agreed, saying that before Blair\u2019s visit \u201cthe Egyptians were tending to feel that we were not interested. They have been delighted to find this is not so\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mubarak also became more muted about the presence of Egyptian militants in London. By October 1998, trade secretary Peter Mandelson\u2019s assistant private secretary, Zhada Bibi, was writing that \u201cpolitical and economic ties with Egypt are strengthening\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK government continued to back the Mubarak regime under Blair and his successors. Just before Mubarak was overthrown in the popular \u2018Arab spring\u2019 protests of 2011, Blair described<\/a> the beleaguered Egyptian leader as “immensely courageous and a force for good”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The deepened relationship Blair established was also a precursor to that with the country’s current pharaoh, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Blair welcomed<\/a> the Egyptian army’s seizure of power in 2013 which brought Sisi to power and then went on to advise<\/a> him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK has supplied Egypt with \u00a3297m worth of military equipment under Sisi’s regime, which has created an unprecedented human rights crisis in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BG was acquired by Shell in 2015. It is their interests, alongside BP\u2019s interests in Egypt, that UK foreign policy now promotes, while Whitehall largely ignores the country’s increasing human rights disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Tony Blair\u2019s visit to Egypt in April 1998 was his first trip to the Middle East since being elected prime minister the previous year.  In Cairo, Blair promoted British arms exports, attended the signing ceremony of a new energy deal with British Gas and announced the creation of an Egyptian British Business Council, telling a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,18],"tags":[121,63],"coauthors":[183],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow Tony Blair sealed UK relations with Egypt\u2019s dictatorship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Labour prime minister\u2019s visit to Cairo in April 1998 deepened UK support for the regime of Hosni Mubarak, recognised by officials as a 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minister\u2019s visit to Cairo in April 1998 deepened UK support for the regime of Hosni Mubarak, recognised by officials as a \u201cPharoah\u201d presiding over a \u201cpaternalistic despotism\u201d, declassified files show.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/how-tony-blair-sealed-uk-relations-with-egypts-dictatorship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/how-tony-blair-sealed-uk-relations-with-egypts-dictatorship\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/how-tony-blair-sealed-uk-relations-with-egypts-dictatorship\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/01-header-Blair-Mubarak-meeting.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/01-header-Blair-Mubarak-meeting.jpg","width":2048,"height":1212,"caption":"Tony Blair with Hosni Mubarak. 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