Cherie Blair bragged to Clinton about ‘good links’ with Qatar, where gays face jail
Cherie Blair bragged to Hillary Clinton about her “good links” with Qatar – where gay people face imprisonment.
The lawyer and wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair made the comments to Hillary Clinton, while Clinton was serving as US Secretary of State.
Messages disclosed this week from Clinton’s personal email account show that Mrs Blair emailed in 2010 – while her husband was serving as Middle East peace envoy – encouraging the US to form stronger ties with Qatar.
The country – which is run by an autocratic royal family – criminalises homosexuality, with “homosexual acts” between adult females and adult males both forbidden.
Mrs Blair mentioned neither in her email chain with Hillary Clinton, when organising a meeting on behalf of the Qataris.
She wrote: “As you know I have good links to the Qataris. Sheikha Mosah’s son is the 31/32 year old Crown Prince and she is keen that he starts to build a wider international profile.”
Citing common interests, she added: “[He] would love to meet with you in person to discuss this and to explore potential partnership areas between US and Qatar… he is also keen to talk more generally about US/Qatari cooperation and even suggested they could help out with the Oil spill problem.”
Clinton replied: “I would be happy to meet w him. How should I follow up to arrange a mutually agreeable time? All the best to you.”
Mrs Blair replied that she would give the Democrat the “personal number” for the Crown Prince.
