The British Daily Mail said that Blair, a former British prime minister, mounted an intense political lobbying campaign to save the Ramallah-based Wataniya mobile company, which is owned by the American investment bank JP Morgan which currently employs Blair as a consultant.
Wataniya had already launched an expensive network in the West Bank but then discovered that Israel would not allow it to use the frequencies required. Blair stepped in to save the company by spending months changing the Israeli government’s mind.
The report quoted officials in the West Bank and Israel as saying that Blair used his influence to convince Israeli officials that saving the company would help boost the Palestinian economy, all the while withholding the information that the Qatari firm controlling it, Qtel, is a major client of JP Morgan.
According to the report, JP Morgan has a financial stake in the Palestinian company and stood to lose millions of dollars if the investments did not pay off.
The report also said that the family of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also stood to gain from Blair’s influence, as a company owned by son Tariq Abbas had already signed advertisement contracts with Wataniya.
After a three-year struggle, during which Blair never mentioned the various ties revealed in the report, his influence bore fruit. Last November Israel withdrew its objections, allowing the company to operate.
The report is especially scathing in its criticism toward Blair, the Daily Mail says, as those who stand to gain from the new network are the Palestinian Authority’s high-ranking officials, and not its citizens.
Blair earlier faced demands by Tory MP David Davis to publish full details of the many business interests that have allowed him to amass a personal fortune estimated to be worth at least 15 million pounds, the paper reported.
“There are now questions about how he has used his powers as a peace envoy and whether that has benefited his commercial sponsors,” Davis said.
