Tony Blair Lobbied Kuwait to Buy British Guns as Quid Pro Quo for Gulf War

Tony Blair remains controversial for involving British forces in the US-led 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, on the basis of false intelligence reports that president Saddam Hussein had secretly stockpiled chemical weapons.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair lobbied the Kuwaiti monarchy to buy self-propelled artillery as a reward for the UK's part in the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Documents released by the National Archives in Kew, South-West London, show that Blair repeatedly approached Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Sa’ad in 1998 and 1999 to buy the AS-90 armoured vehicle.

In late 1998, Blair wrote to the prince lauding the tracked gun carriage, officially designated the Gun Equipment 155mm L131, "the best 155mm gun in the world today".

"This order from Kuwait is very important to the UK and to our industry at a difficult time. We will await your decision eagerly," Blair pleaded.

Internal briefing notes for a January 1999 meeting between the two show the government felt it was "due the award of a significant defence equipment contract in recognition of its defence of Kuwait" from Iraqi forces which invaded in 1990.

The day before the meeting Blair was briefed that the government was "frankly disappointed" to have "won so little Kuwaiti defence business since end of Gulf war" despite being a "loyal friend to Kuwait over many years".

A restricted memo on the meeting's outcome from Downing Street private secretary Philip Barton to Foreign Office civil servant Tim Barrow warned that manufacturer BAe Systems faced competition from the US-made M109 self-propelled howitzer, a very similar system.

“The prime minister raised the AS90. It was an effective weapon, although he knew the US had offered the M109. He hoped very much that all the support we had given Kuwait would be remembered," Barton wrote.

"The crown prince said that the price of the AS90 was very high. The prime minister pointed out that it would do the job properly. The defence minister said that they would take the state of relations with the UK into account."

Months after the meeting, Kuwait announced its decision to buy M109s from the US. But the Gulf monarchy also ordered 51 PLZ-45 howitzer vehicles from China. BAE systems eventually won lucrative contracts from the US, Brazil and Chile to upgrade their M109s.

Barrow was appointed British ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2008. Blair remains controversial for involving British forces in the US-led 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, on the basis of false intelligence reports that president Saddam Hussein was secretly hoarding weapons of mass destruction.

While the British army remains the sole user of the vehicle, Poland produced 80 AHS Krab self-propelled guns with a variant of the AS-90 turret featuring a longer-barrelled gun, mounted on the South Korean-made K9 Thunder howitzer chassis.

Poland has supplied 18 of its Krab howitzers to Ukraine as military aid since Russia launched its special military operation there on February 24.

Ukraine has also been pledged 22 M109s by Norway, while up to 64 mothballed examples have been bought from Belgium — 20 of those by the UK — for the Kiev regime.