{"id":3845,"date":"2021-10-29T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/?p=3845"},"modified":"2022-12-17T13:28:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T13:28:06","slug":"revealed-tony-blairs-extraordinary-efforts-to-court-syrias-dictators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.declassifieduk.org\/revealed-tony-blairs-extraordinary-efforts-to-court-syrias-dictators\/","title":{"rendered":"Revealed: Tony Blair\u2019s extraordinary efforts to court Syria\u2019s dictators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tony Blair\u2019s government believed Bashar al-Assad had \u201cincreased the momentum for reform\u201d in Syria after claiming 99.7% of the vote in a presidential election in which he was the only candidate, documents obtained by Declassified<\/em> reveal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Syrian dictator came to power in 2000 following the death of his father, Hafez, who had ruled the country with an iron fist for three decades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n British diplomats were so optimistic the succession would strengthen relations between Damascus and London that Blair took the unprecedented step of visiting the Syrian capital to meet Assad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the first ever visit to Syria by a British premier and is now likely to cause embarrassment for the Foreign Office, which took a year to process Declassified\u2019s<\/em> freedom of information (FOI) request for planning documents for the trip — flouting the normal 20-day time limit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The documents we finally received include a briefing given to Blair in which British diplomats believed 34-year-old Assad may \u201cpromote the economic reform necessary\u201d in Syria including \u201csubstantial liberalisation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Liberalising an economy typically involves slashing regulation on business and selling off state-owned assets such as water or energy, as Margaret Thatcher\u2019s government had done<\/a> in Britain in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSince his succession, Bashar has reiterated his desire for modernisation,\u201d the British documents noted. \u201cThe drive against corruption, instigated before his father\u2019s death is set to continue\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The month before Blair arrived in Damascus, Amnesty International published<\/a> a report on a notorious prison in the country which found \u201ca consistent picture of daily torture, inhuman conditions, constant victimization, and humiliation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n There were further overtures to even strengthen military cooperation with the Syrian dictatorship<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Amnesty added: \u201cFor over two decades Amnesty International has documented and campaigned on a range of serious human rights violations in Syria, including the arbitrary detention of political opponents, the long-term detention of prisoners of conscience, torture and ill-treatment, and political killings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Such human rights abuses by the Syrian regime were not mentioned in the eleven pages of briefing notes released to Declassified<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2011, a decade after Blair\u2019s visit, the Assad regime massacred young Arab Spring protesters and imposed a brutal crackdown that inspired armed opposition against his rule, leading to a full-scale civil and international war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now a firm enemy of Whitehall, the UK has since 2012 spent<\/a> at least \u00a3350 million supporting the rebellion against Assad in Syria while Blair himself has called<\/a> for Britain to bomb Syrian regime targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blair\u2019s attempt to woo the Assad regime has echoes of New Labour\u2019s initial strategy<\/a> of supporting Vladimir Putin. In 2000, files show Whitehall wanted to win Russian oil for BP and overlooked Moscow\u2019s brutal war in Chechnya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n British intelligence now regards<\/a> Putin as the most serious threat to the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n