At a glance the emails look like the work of a professional lobbyist. The first – sent in May 2009 to Hillary Clinton’s private email account – is marked “confidential”. It seeks to set up a meeting between the US secretary of state and another powerful woman, Sheikha Mozah, the second wife of the then emir of Qatar.
Nothing unusual about this. Until you read to the bottom and catch the name of the lobbyist-in-chief – Cherie Blair. At this point Tony Blair had left Downing Street. Over a four-month period in 2009 Cherie Blair repeatedly emails Clinton – they swap 19 emails in all – urging the then US secretary of state to carve out a space in her busy diary to meet Mozah.
The correspondence offers a tantalising glimpse of how top-level international influence works. It raises questions as to why Cherie Blair would lobby so assiduously on behalf of her “friend”, the extremely rich wife of one of the Gulf’s more conservative rulers. It would be more normal to arrange an appointment with Clinton via regular diplomatic channels. Or the US embassy in Qatar.
The emails also suggest that the relationship between Blair and Clinton is friendly and familiar, but not intimate or warm. The tone is businesslike. Both Clinton and Blair seem to divine – correctly, as it turns out – that their private exchanges might at some point be leaked. Clinton turned over her personal emails voluntarily, with the State Department releasing them this week, after a US judge intervened.
Cherie Blair dispatches her first email to Clinton on 13 May 2009, using her personal BlackBerry account. She addresses Clinton – incorrectly, with one “l”– as “Hilary”:
“You may not know but for the last four years I have been working with the Qatari’s and in particular with Sheika Moser [sic] on disability issues in Qatar and I have built up a good relationship with them.
“Sheika Moser has approached me privately saying they are keen to get their relationship with the USA on a more positive footing and she was hoping for a ’‘woman to woman’ private meeting with you. She is happy to come to Washington if you could make some time available.”
“Is this something you would be prepared to do [?].”
Blair describes Sheikha Mozah – full title Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned – as “someone who has real influence in Qatar”. She adds that their conversation would not just be about charitable issues but “would be about the US/Qatar relationship generally”.
In 2009 this relationship was good, and in no need of mediation by third parties. Qatar had sought to position itself as a bridge between Iran and the west. According to David Hartwell, a Middle East analyst, key themes included Doha’s diplomatic support for Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, at that point enjoying a fleeting upswing. All of which made Cherie Blair’s intervention “odd”, Hartwell said.
Odd or not, Blair’s approach is fruitful. Nine days later Clinton – using her unofficial account - emails back. “Cherie - So sorry I’ve been slow in responding but I’m very interested in talking...” Clinton says she would be happy to host Mozah in the US or Europe, and adds: “How do you think I should proceed? All the best, Hillary.”
On Wednesday Cherie Blair’s office said that Blair had had a relationship with Mozah for “a number of years”. They shared an interest in disability issues with Blair co-chairing a disability conference in Qatar, it said, adding: “As the email also makes clear, she was merely acting as a conduit – on a woman to woman basis – between Sheikha Mozah and Hillary Clinton.”
The answer, however, fails to explain fully why Cherie Blair pursued the subject with such keenness. At the time Tony Blair was working as Middle East envoy on behalf of the “Quartet”: the United Nations, EU, US and Russia. Cherie Blair does not refer to Blair’s role trying to broker a regional peace deal. Rather, she appears to be acting directly as a fixer for the Qatari ruling dynasty.
On 27 May Blair sends Clinton another message. She cuts and pastes a reply from one of Sheikha Mozah’s aides. It says that “Her Highness” is unable to meet Clinton in June 2009 due to “prior commitments” but will be available at the end of September, after Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr.
Clinton agrees to “follow up”. This prompts an enthusiastic email from Cherie, who writes: “Great. All the best to you its fantastic to see you doing so well and when I see what a difference you are making it reminds me why politics is too important to be left to the bad people.”
The meeting finally takes place in September. Afterwards, Hillary emails to apologise for missing Cherie during a European trip and says she only “had a few minutes w Tony at the Quartet mtg”.
Cherie pings back: “It was great to see Bill on such good form. My friend from Q [Qatar] really enjoyed your meeting and felt it had gone well hope you did too.”
Mozah was not immediately available for comment. There is, of course, nothing wrong in doing a favour for a friend. But when the friend is part of a family that owns the Shard, Harrods and London’s largest private house – 1,2,3 Cornwall Terrace, by Regent’s Park – among other assets, the favour acquires another dimension. Mozah’s husband is Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. The former emir– in power between 1995 and 2013 – is worth an estimated £1.5bn.
There is no suggestion here of malfeasance. But the emails are a further example of how alluring the Blairs apparently find the very wealthy, even when charity is involved.