RAMALLAH, September 12 (JMCC) - Quartet Mideast envoy Tony Blair is on the payroll of an investor in a Palestinian telecommunication company on whose behalf he pressured
Israel, reports the
Daily Mail.
Blair receives $2 million a year in consulting fees from JP Morgan, which has invested in the Palestinian company Wataniya. When Wataniya nearly collapsed because Israel was refusing to release frequencies for the company's use, Blair stepped in to negotiate a bailout, and pressured Israel to ease its policies.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has revealed:
Mr Blair spoke of the need to get Wataniya up and running in order to boost the Palestinian economy. However JP Morgan, the American investment bank that employs him as a consultant, has a financial stake in Wataniya through Wataniya’s owner, the Qatari firm Qtel, which is an important client of JP Morgan.
Financial documents show that back in 2007, JP Morgan had been one of four ‘mandated lead arrangers’ of a $2?billion loan with which Qtel bought Wataniya from its original Kuwaiti owners. Last year, the bank joined a syndicate that lent Qtel a further $500?million, and became a ‘lead arranger’ for a Qtel bond issue which raised yet another $1.5?billion.
Read the whole story at the Daily Mail...