Please help us, my good friend Tony Blair: Gaddafi's son asks for former PM's help to 'crush enemies'
By Nabila Ramdani, Tim Shipman and Tom LeonardLast updated at 8:38 AM on 25th February 2011
Tony Blair is still a ‘good friend’ of the Libyan dictatorship and should broker a deal to keep it in power, according to a son of Colonel Gaddafi.
A close ally of Saif Gaddafi last night urged the former prime minister to help put his country on a ‘stable footing’.
The Tripoli-based official told the Mail: ‘Tony Blair was attending meetings with the Brother Leader until last year.
Deal in the desert : Tony Blair meets Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at his desert base outside Sirte south of Tripoli in 2007.
‘It is time for the international community to bring peace to Libya and Tony Blair could be at the forefront of this process. Tony Blair is a good friend who would put the country on a stable footing.’
The official is a senior figure in the Libyan regime and is very close to Saif. The Mail is not identifying him for security reasons.
Friends: A close ally of Saif Gaddafi has urged the former prime minister to help put his country on a ‘stable footing’
His astonishing intervention came as MPs and critics of Mr Blair warned he could be severely embarrassed if the Gaddafi regime imploded.
Lockerbie families warned he would be left with a ‘dirty bib’ when full details of the business deals between Libya and Western companies, some of which were engineered by Mr Blair, are revealed.
In 2004, the former PM brought Gaddafi in from the cold by signing the notorious ‘Deal in the Desert’, which saw British firms such as BP sign massive contracts with the Libyans.
His visit led to negotiations over a prisoner transfer agreement that ultimately paved the way for the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.
Facing embarrassment: Blair was attacked by families of victims of the Lockerbie bombing for his dealings with Gaddafi
Saif, the dictator’s British-educated second son, claimed in an interview that the former prime minister was a friend of the regime. He even suggested that Mr Blair was a consultant to the Libyan Investment Authority, the sovereign fund responsible for the country’s £50billion in oil wealth – something Mr Blair has denied.
Since he left Downing Street, Mr Blair has received fees of up to £2million a year as an adviser to JP Morgan, which has important business interests in Libya.
Asked yesterday if Mr Blair was in telephone or email contact with Colonel Gaddafi or any members of his entourage, the source said: ‘If he was it would be a secret. Their recent negotiations have all been a secret.’
Critics of Mr Blair said he had a duty to try to salvage some good from his close links with the Gaddafi family.
Frank Duggan, who represents American victims of the Lockerbie bombing, leapt on claims by Libya’s former justice minister that Gaddafi personally ordered the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.
Mustafa Mohamed Abud Al Jalil told a Swedish newspaper he had proof ‘that Gaddafi gave the order about Lockerbie’.
Mr Duggan told the Mail: ‘It’s what we have always thought. I do think it would be helpful for Tony Blair to help mediate this situation. We are upset with Tony Blair over the deals he has made with Libya and we remain upset with him. But nevertheless, if he can help, he should do so as the Libyan people try to take their country back from this dreadful family.’
Mr Duggan warned: ‘There are going to be great revelations coming out. It will be just like it was in East Germany when the Stasi secret police files were released. There are a lot of people who are going to have dirty bibs before this is out.’
Daniel Kawczynski, the Tory chairman of the parliamentary all-party Libya group, says he will use parliamentary privilege next week to raise questions about how much money Mr Blair has made from his links to Libya.
A spokesman for Mr Blair refused to say whether he was prepared to act as an international mediator.
‘Tony Blair does not and has never
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