Prince Andrew helped deepen UK relations with Gulf regimes for eight years after Epstein scandal
In early December 2010, with the Middle East on the cusp of revolution, the Queen of England’s second son, Prince Andrew, went for a walk in New York’s Central Park. With him was Jeffrey Epstein, the US billionaire and convicted paedophile, who committed suicide in prison in 2019.
When a photo of their meeting emerged in 2011, it engulfed Andrew in a scandal which forced him to give up his prestigious role as an official UK trade envoy by July of that year.
Yet, for much of the last decade since losing that role, he continued to represent Britain and its royal family in the highly controversial Gulf region. Andrew participated in 70 meetings with Middle Eastern monarchies notorious for repressing their own people in the wake of the Arab Spring of 2011, research by Declassified has found.
As recently as September 2019, Andrew met the new Saudi ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid bin Bandar, at Buckingham Palace, a year after the regime had used its diplomatic network to dismember Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
It was Andrew’s notorious interview about Epstein with BBC Newsnight in November 2019 that forced him to “step back from public duties for the foreseeable future”, putting a stop to his quasidiplomatic meetings with Middle East monarchies, including an imminent trip to Bahrain.
While there has been media scrutiny of Andrew’s relationship with Epstein, less reported is that he retained a key role in British foreign policy long after a former UK official publicly raised concerns in 2010 about his “boorish” behaviour in Bahrain and reputation amongst diplomats as “His Buffoon Highness”.
Andrew’s Arab Spring
In March 2011, with uprisings under way in most of the region’s eight monarchies and doubts building over his personal conduct, Andrew postponed a planned trip to Saudi Arabia to promote arms sales in his role as a trade envoy.
Buckingham Palace had to defend his suitability for the job, saying: “Middle East potentates like meeting princes. He comes in as the son of the Queen and that opens doors. He can raise problems with a crown prince and we later discover that the difficulties have been overcome and the contract can be signed.”
The Arab Spring and the Epstein photo provoked scrutiny of Andrew from two flanks, with revelations he had entertained the son-in-law of Tunisian dictator, Zine ben Ali at Buckingham Palace shortly before the North African regime fell.
Yet, Andrew was determined to maintain relations with Arab autocrats, visiting Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain at his residence in London one evening in mid-April 2011.
Bahrain’s security forces, supported by neighbouring Saudi Arabia using British-made military equipment, had just crushed massive pro-democracy protests, killing more than 40 people.
Although able to meet Andrew in private, the crackdown generated so much international controversy that Salman had to decline an invitation to attend Prince William’s wedding later that month. Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the invite from Buckingham Palace had displayed “shocking insensitivity to the suffering of people who have been persecuted”.
British campaigner Peter Tatchell (centre) demonstrates with others outside Buckingham Palace about the royal family’s friendship with autocrats. (Photo: EPA / Andy Rain)
In July 2011, Andrew also succumbed to pressure and said he was standing down from his trade envoy role. Despite the announcement, little changed, with government ministers allowing him to honour “a number of pre-existing overseas diary commitments” until the end of the year.
These included a rescheduled trip to Saudi Arabia plus sessions in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Palace accounts show his flights for those trips cost the public purse £95,000, with the Foreign Office and trade ministry covering his accommodation and other expenses.
For the Saudi trip, he was accompanied by his aide, a former director of the Conservative Middle East Council, Laura Hutchings, who the Telegraph called “one of David Cameron’s most glamorous lieutenants”.
The pair landed at Dhahran military airbase, in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province where 160 members of the Shia minority had been arrested for staging Arab Spring protests. Andrew met Saudi oil executives in Al Khobar along with Saudi ministers and four princes, including Prince Al Waleed Al Talal, whom Time magazine dubbed the “Arabian Warren Buffett” due to his enormous wealth. Al Waleed owns the Savoy Hotel in London.
By delaying the trip until after the peak of the Arab Spring protests, Andrew avoided significant controversy, although he was meeting officials from a regime which continued to suppress almost any dissent, not just domestically but also in a neighbouring state.
Two months later, in November 2011, Andrew landed in Qatar for a week of meetings with other Gulf royals and business figures, accompanied by his aides Hutchings and Major-General Richard Sykes, a former British army officer. Andrew met four Qatari royals, including the Central Bank governor, the trade minister, the prime minister and his deputy. In addition, he attended a reception given by the Anglo-Dutch energy company Shell, which owns huge gas fields in Qatar.