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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-03-15/pr-firm-defends-its-role-in-saudi-arabias-controversial-corruption-crackdown" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-03-15/pr-firm-defends-its-role-in-saudi-arabias-controversial-corruption-crackdown</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">15.03.18 <b>PR AND SPIN LOBBYING’S HIDDEN INFLUENCE</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American PR firm defends its role in Saudi Arabia’s controversial corruption crackdown</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We tell the stories that matter. To help defend quality reporting and spark change, please support the Bureau</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Abigail Fielding-Smith</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-03-15/pr-firm-defends-its-role-in-saudi-arabias-controversial-corruption-crackdown</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Send via Email</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A public relations (PR) firm hired by Saudi Arabia has defended its work briefing the media on the country’s anti-corruption crackdown after the New York Times reported claims that detainees were physically abused and coerced into handing over their assets.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>APCO Worldwide, a US-headquartered firm, was hired by the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information in 2017, as part of a major PR offensive revealed by the Bureau last week.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the firm’s duties was helping brief journalists on the anti-corruption campaign launched by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (also known by his initials, MBS) in November 2017, which saw hundreds of royals and businessmen detained in the Ritz Carlton in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Corruption is an endemic problem among the Saudi Arabian elite, and Bin Salman’s supporters argued that the arrests were part of a serious and necessary reform initiative.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But human rights advocates and international investors alike have been alarmed at the lack of transparent legal process involved. Rumours of ill-treatment of the detainees had been in circulation for some time, and on Monday the New York Times reported allegations from a doctor and a US official that 17 of them had required medical attention because of abuse by their captors. One of these detainees later died in custody, the Times reported.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked whether APCO had made any attempt to establish the truth about rumoured coercive and extra-legal practices in the anti-corruption campaign before briefing the media on it, a spokesman for the firm told the Bureau there had been no reason to. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It is only now that such allegations are coming to light. Therefore, there were no concerns for us to raise with the client, and no reason for us to question the information we were given”, the spokesman said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spokesman would not directly answer a question on whether the firm planned to raise the New York Times story with their Saudi clients, saying only that the Saudi government’s statement had denied the claims “in the strongest possible terms.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spokesman added: “APCO respects its ethical obligations, including honesty, accuracy and compliance with all laws governing its activities.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The allegations in the New York Times confirmed the perceptions of many that due process, transparency and accountability were lacking”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a specialist in the Gulf countries at Rice University’s Baker Institute, said that concerns about the anti-corruption crackdown long pre-dated the publication of the New York Times article.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The allegations in the New York Times reinforced persistent rumours since the start of the crackdown in November concerning patterns of mistreatment of select detainees”, he said. “It confirmed the perceptions of many that due process, transparency, and accountability were lacking in the proceedings.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">APCO’s work is part of a multimillion dollar PR offensive launched by Mohammed Bin Salman, who is due to visit the US on Monday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An analyst close to Saudi circles told the Bureau that the Saudis had embarked on the initiative in mid 2016, after realising that they were losing the battle for public opinion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Riyadh has good relationships with Western governments, which value the oil-rich state’s purchase of their weapons and strategic cooperation in the Middle East, it faces growing image problems. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“You have to promote the idea that Saudi Arabia is becoming Switzerland”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bin Salman launched a military intervention in Yemen in 2015, which has caused huge civilian suffering, while international investors have been spooked by the seeming arbitrariness of his anti-corruption campaign. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last month, US Senators started pushing for a vote on withdrawing support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Saudis have spent millions of dollars trying to promote a more favourable impression of their country. A former employee of one of the British PR firms likened representing a client like Saudi Arabia to being a defence lawyer. “You have to work to get the client out of trouble”, the employee said, and promote "the idea that Saudi Arabia is becoming Switzerland.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MBS has introduced notable social and economic reforms, and his visit to the UK last week was accompanied by ads in national newspapers and on billboards celebrating him for “opening Saudi Arabia to the world” and “bringing change” to the Kingdom. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ad in a British broadsheet paper]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The lines to push, said one former PR man, was “it's a shame that civilians have been hit but you have to look at the bigger picture”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An energetic PR push will likely accompany the Crown Prince’s visit to Washington on Monday. Last time the Saudi ruler was preparing to meet President Donald Trump, in May 2017, US firms representing the Saudi government circulated ‘fact sheets’ (which you can read in full on this link) about the war in Yemen which emphasised the care Saudi targeters took not to kill civilians. (A United Nations Panel of Experts, by contrast, found that “Measures taken by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in its targeting process to minimize child casualties, if any, remain largely ineffective.”)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A former employee of one of the PR firms working for the Saudis summarised the ‘lines’ he would be given to push as: “‘these are unconfirmed reports for the moment’, ‘we’re working with the Americans’, ‘we’ll investigate the situation’, ‘it’s a shame that civilians have been hit but you have to look at the bigger picture’”.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The campaign has had some success. After Riyadh released a humanitarian plan for Yemen with the help of a British PR firm earlier this year, international criticism of Saudi Arabia’s role in the catastrophic hunger and health crisis there was tempered.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Document issued by a US legal firm, on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A mother tends her child in a hospital in Yemen in winter 2017</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Photograph: Florain Seriex/MSF</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Permission for special unpaid leave is only given if in line with strategic government priorities</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Meanwhile, the UK has authorised the long term loan of a senior diplomat to one of MBS’s PR firms, the Bureau revealed last week.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jolyon Welsh, whose roles at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have included Deputy Director of Middle East, and Head of Government to Government Contracting, was given special unpaid leave in 2014 to become a senior director of<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b> Consulum. The London and Middle East-based communications firm was founded by former executives from the scandal-hit agency Bell Pottinger.</b></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since at least 2016, Consulum’s client list has included Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The firm represents his charitable foundation, MiSK, and has also been reported to handle communications for a military company owned by the Public Investment Fund, which Bin Salman supervises.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Bureau has learned that Welsh has had at least some involvement with the Saudi account. The fact that a diplomat at his level has been allowed to take up such a role underscores the close ties between London and Riyadh, as permission to work for a firm is only given if “directly and closely related to a specific FCO area of interest and is in line with our strategic priorities.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jolyon Welsh, senior Foreign Office mandarin, on loan to Consulum</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Photograph: UKTI</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bin Salman is expected to visit the White House on Tuesday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The challenge for the Crown Prince in his visit to the United States, as in his visit to Britain just beforehand, is to reassure international investors that there will be institutional safeguards protecting their investments going forward", said Ulrichsen. He added: “And that the business landscape in Saudi Arabia is not vulnerable to the sudden disruption that we saw last November.”</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>06.03.18 PR AND SPIN LOBBYING’S HIDDEN INFLUENCE</b></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Foreign Office diplomat on "leave" at Saudi Crown Prince's PR firm</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We tell the stories that matter. To help defend quality reporting and spark change, please support the Bureau</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donate now</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Published March 6 2018</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By Abigail Fielding-Smith , Crofton Black</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2018-03-06/foreign-office-lends-diplomat-to-pr-firm-working-for-saudi-crown-prince</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Send via Email</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This story was published in partnership with:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A senior British diplomat is working for a firm at the heart of a multimillion dollar Saudi public relations offensive whilst still employed by the Foreign Office (FCO), the Bureau can reveal. The news comes as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia prepares for a trip to London, where he will be greeted by demonstrations against the civilian death toll in Yemen caused by Saudi bombing.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jolyon Welsh, whose roles at the FCO have included Deputy Director of Middle East, and Head of Government to Government Contracting, was given special unpaid leave in 2014 to become a senior director of Consulum. This London and Middle East-based communications firm was founded by former executives from the scandal-hit agency Bell Pottinger. He has remained there ever since.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Consulum’s client list includes Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (widely known as MBS)</b>, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, whose state visit to the UK starts this Wednesday amid controversy over his country's military campaign in Yemen. The United Nations said in September 2017 that airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition were the “leading cause” of civilian casualties in the Yemen war. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Bureau has learned that Welsh has had at least some involvement with the Saudi account. The fact that a diplomat at his level has been allowed to take up such a role underscores the close ties between London and Riyadh, as permission to work for a firm is only given if “directly and closely related to a specific FCO area of interest and is in line with our strategic priorities.” </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The revelation raises fresh questions about revolving doors between Whitehall and PR firms acting for foreign governments. Lloyd Russell Moyle MP is a member of Commons committee on Arms Export Controls. He told the Bureau: “It's one thing for the Foreign Office to provide political cover for the Saudis' assault on Yemen, which defies all notions of proportionality and which I believe in several cases constitutes war crimes. It's quite another for the FCO to have lent its staff to a company working for the Saudis’ PR operation.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jolyon Welsh, senior Foreign Office mandarin, on loan to Consulum</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Photograph: UKTI</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Permission is only given to be hired out to the private sector if “in line with our strategic priorities”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The FCO told the Bureau that there are now 34 officials, such as Welsh, who are working in the private sector while maintaining their Foreign Office status. The Special Unpaid Leave (SUPL) scheme, which allows diplomats to work at senior levels in outside companies for years at a time, is a different programme from the short-term secondments which the FCO has long used to give employees experience of industry sectors. Those on SUPL are paid by their private employers but remain FCO employees and can return to the department afterwards.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Foreign Office gave permission to 14 people to work in the private sector on Special Unpaid Leave (SUPL) in 2014, eight in 2015, 14 in 2016 and five in 2017. Five have since returned to the Department. The FCO would not say how many were involved in work which was related to advising foreign governments.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The rules governing this are vague; an FCO statement simply said diplomats were prohibited from doing jobs that “might in any way affect or impinge upon employees or their work in the Diplomatic Service”. One former diplomat told the Bureau that the system was “really unhealthy”. When the Bureau put the Welsh example to the FCO, a spokesperson said “we are confident there is no conflict of interest in this case”.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“There is a clear conflict here”, said Andrew Smith, media co-ordinator for the group, Campaign Against Arms Trade. He added: “This placement is totally inappropriate and is symptomatic of the cozy and compromising relationship between Whitehall and human rights abusing regimes like the one in Saudi Arabia.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>BAE is hoping to clinch a £10 billion deal with Saudi for more Typhoon fighter bombers</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Photograph: BAE Systems</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The UK has sold billions of pounds worth of weapons to the Saudis during the war, and is looking to clinch a £10bn order for more Typhoon fighter bombers. London now wants to deepen the trade relationship further, in the hope that the oil-rich Gulf state’s ambitious economic plans can provide some rare good news for British companies, amid gloomy post-Brexit forecasts.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But as Downing Street readies a warm welcome for the Crown Prince on 7 March, the Metropolitan Police are preparing for street protests. Harrowing images of the aftermath of airstrikes conducted by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have started to inflame public opinion against the Kingdom, creating legal headaches for its allies. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Several European countries have suspended arms sales to Saudi Arabia as the documentation of civilian casualties in Yemen has piled up, and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn MP has called for Britain to do the same. Last week, US Senators started pushing for a vote on withdrawing support for the Saudi-led coalition.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>You have to promote “the idea that Saudi Arabia is becoming Switzerland”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Meanwhile, the global investor community has been spooked by the 32 year-old Crown Prince’s sudden arrest of hundreds of businessmen and fellow royals in November 2017, ostensibly as part of an anti-corruption campaign.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Insiders say Riyadh is on a mission to get people talking about reform and opportunities, rather than civilian deaths and the rule of law. The Kingdom has hired an army of Western PR firms and consultants, including several British ones.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The message being circulated by the Saudi regime is that MBS is making the country less hardline and more liberal. The Kingdom is emphasising measures such as the plan to lift the ban on women driving, in June 2018. Economic issues, not difficult topics like Yemen, are the favoured focus of conversation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Analysts say that the Crown Prince is taking real steps on economic liberalisation, even if he is cracking down on political dissent. But the picture of Bin Salman as a dedicated reformer is somewhat complicated by revelations about his own personal spending.<b> Recent purchases have reportedly included a yacht worth an esimated $500m, a Versailles-style castle in France, and a Leonardo Da Vinci painting.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A former employee of one of the British PR firms likened representing a client like Saudi Arabia to being a defence lawyer. “You have to work to get the client out of trouble”, the employee said, and promote "the idea that Saudi Arabia is becoming Switzerland.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">City of London image The London skyline</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Photograph: Shutterstock</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">British firms, Saudi influence</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">Consulum has been working on MBS's projects since at least 2016</b>. The firm, whose London headquarters are in Berkeley Square, was set up in 2013 by former Bell Pottinger staff members, Tim Ryan and Matthew Gunther Bushell. It also has offices in Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Consulum describes itself on its website as providing “sophisticated communications programmes that shape awareness, guide opinion and enhance understanding”. Industry insiders say the firm is known as being professional and has none of the reputation for risk-taking that affected Bell Pottinger.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But like Bell Pottinger, Consulum has attracted attention for the profile of its clients. The firm was criticised after it emerged in 2013 that it was working for the authoritarian government of Bahrain. Consulum’s other clients include the governments of Djibouti and the UAE. It is not clear how many contracts the firm has in Saudi Arabia, but it is evident from press releases that it is working for MBS’s charity, the Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Foundation or MiSK.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video of Bill Gates talking about MiSK's work in November 2017 in Riyadh</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MiSK is a non-profit that runs education and skills programmes for Saudi youth. It also pushes Bin Salman’s message of reform and progress out on to the world stage, hosting a breakfast panel at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Two weeks after the arrests of hundreds of businessmen and tycoons began in November 2017, Misk ran a conference in Riyadh on education and “the digital future”. The conference was addressed by Bill Gates (pictured above speaking at the forum), even as his Saudi business partner Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal was being detained across town, at the Ritz Carlton.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the online journal Intelligence Online, Consulum also handles communications for the Saudi Arabia Military Industries company, a venture owned by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund that is seeking to promote domestic defence manufacturing.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last month, IRIN News revealed that one of the other British firms involved in the Saudi PR effort is Pagefield Global Counsel (PGC), which specialises in crisis management. The Saudis came up with a humanitarian plan for Yemen under growing pressure about the dire situation there, and PGC has been helping them publicise this. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Like Consulum, Pagefield has good connections with the UK government. Liam Parker, the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson MP’s former special adviser, walked straight out of Whitehall into PGC’s sister company, Pagefield Communications, last September.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Liam Parker, former director of political communications to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson MP</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While Parker was his director of political communications, Boris Johnson was involved in a political row about Saudi Arabia and also visited the country, but Parker told the Bureau he never advised the Foreign Secretary about Saudi Arabia. He also said he has nothing to do with Pagefield’s work for Saudi. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pagefield confirmed its work for the Saudis to the Bureau, but downplayed the idea that they were shaping the narrative. “PGC is one of a large number of agencies assisting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the communications associated with multi-billion dollar humanitarian aid plans”, a Pagefield Global Counsel company spokesman said.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Another British beneficiary of Saudi spending on outreach is<b style=""> Martin Sorrel’s WPP group.</b> The global megafirm has contracts with the Saudis through US subsidiaries such as <b>Hill & Knowlton and Burston Marsteller.</b> The London agency Freuds meanwhile helped launch MBS’s economic reform agenda, Vision 2030, though a spokesman said they are no longer working on that account.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Image of (the then Deputy) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House, in March 2017 Image of (the then Deputy) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House, in March 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">White House/Alamy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The international push</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some of the PR firms’ work is aimed at a domestic audience, but international public opinion is increasingly important to the Saudis. They have been spending on lobbying and consultancy firms for many years, but observers say the effort took on a new energy and sophistication with the ascent of Mohammed Bin Salman. The push started in 2015 when his father took over the throne and was consolidated in June 2017 when MBS was named Crown Prince.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to an analyst close to Saudi circles, the Saudis decided in mid 2016 that they needed to be more active in influencing public opinion, not just policymakers. “They didn’t use to care about PR, they thought the relationship with the US was rock solid, then they realised it wasn’t and tried to do something about it”, the analyst said. “They came to realise there was a game to be played and they weren’t playing it.” Ten new Saudi PR contracts have been registered with US authorities since then, worth many millions of dollars. </span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The push to influence the global conversation has taken other forms. In 2017, the Saudi Ministry of Culture set up a ‘Center for International Communication’ to “facilitate relationships with the global media community”, which has been bringing more foreign journalists to Riyadh.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Bureau understands that a US PR firm called Apco Worldwide has been working with the Saudi Center for International Communications to brief journalists on topics such as the anti-corruption crackdown.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A nurse attends her patient in Al Koweit university hospital in autumn 2017 A nurse attends her patient in Al Koweit university hospital in autumn 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Photograph: Florian Seriex/MSF</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The war in Yemen</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Even more challenging to spin than the anti-corruption programme is the war in Yemen</b>. Yemen’s instability and hunger crisis predated the Saudi-led intervention in 2015, but the coalition’s warplanes and de facto naval blockade have caused huge suffering and made it more difficult to control an outbreak of cholera which infected a million Yemenis.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Yemen war is complicated - and the Iran-linked Houthi militia, which the Saudis are trying to force back - are guilty of plenty of violations of humanitarian law themselves. But the evidence that the Saudi-led coalition is also doing so is stark and compelling. When a UN panel of experts investigated 10 airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on civilian areas in 2017, they found that they had caused 157 deaths.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The Saudis have had various strategies for managing the negative PR from Yemen. Some are crude – in 2016, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon strongly implied they had threatened to withdraw humanitarian funding if they were not taken off the body’s annual list of violators of the rights of children.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some are more subtle. Last summer, ahead of Trump’s trip to Riyadh, US lobbying firms circulated ‘fact sheets’ about the war in Yemen which emphasised the care Saudi targeters took not to kill civilians. The UN Panel of Experts by contrast found that “Measures taken by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition in its targeting process to minimize child casualties, if any, remain largely ineffective.”</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A former employee of one of the PR firms working for Saudi summarised the ‘lines’ he would be given to push as: “‘these are unconfirmed reports for the moment’, ‘we’re working with the Americans’, ‘we’ll investigate the situation’, ‘it’s a shame that civilians have been hit but you have to look at the bigger picture’”.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The stakes for the Saudis in this PR battle are high. Germany, Norway and Holland have already moved to suspend arms sales to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition because of the Yemen war and the UK could follow if Labour is elected. Dave de Roches, an associate professor at the National Defense University in Washington, thinks that even US arms sales to Saudi could be vulnerable. “The Saudis are one bad image coming out of Yemen away from moving three senators, then you’ve got a problem,” he said. “Foreign policy is an elite concern, but the Yemen war has the possibility to bring the emotional to the forefront and then they’ll lose across the West.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The humanitarian situation in Yemen - where eight million people are now on the brink of famine - has also created pressure on the Saudis. Whilst the Houthis share a large part of the blame, Riyadh’s severe restriction of the movement of goods coming in to Yemen, which currently relies on imports for almost everything, contributes to the soaring price of food and medicine.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When the Saudis blocked even humanitarian supplies from coming in to the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeida, in response to a missile strike on Saudi Arabia in November 2017, it provoked a strong international reaction. Even staunch allies like President Donald Trump called for the blockade to end.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">However, humanitarians say they have noticed a big effort to change the narrative on the humanitarian situation. First the Saudis allowed humanitarian supplies back through Hodeida, then they announced that they would deposit $2bn in the Yemeni Central Bank, and then, in February 2018, launched a much-trailed humanitarian action plan for Yemen, which included more funds. The plan was announced in a five star hotel in Riyadh, where members of the press were served an assortment of cakes.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A mother tends her child in a hospital in Yemen in winter 2017</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Photograph: Florain Seriex/MSF</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Humanitarians have welcomed the new funds, assuming they arrive, and the easing of some restrictions on Hodeida, but say that the fundamental problem of the passage of essential goods into Yemen being obstructed hasn’t been addressed. The NGO International Rescue Committee has even described the plan as a “war tactic”.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It would be a grave mistake for donors to think this funding is sufficient for Yemen, and worse for the international community to mistake an isolated humanitarian initiative as restitution for the damages of the ongoing war”, said Suze Van Meegen from the Norwegian Refugee Council. “A contribution to Yemen is not a solution for Yemen – any confusion around this risks leaving Yemen with less international scrutiny.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said their humanitarian operations were “critical to alleviating the suffering caused by the Iran-backed Houthis. This is undeniably the right thing to do for Yemen" and that their investment in long-term infrastructure projects shows "an enduring goal to support and enhance the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In spite of uncertainty about the plan, Saudi Arabia is now under less pressure to do something about Yemen’s suffering than it was before. In fact, a draft Security Council statement put forward by the UK in February even praised the Saudi humanitarian efforts.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>However, former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell MP recently described the Saudis humanitarian plan for Yemen as a “cynical PR exercise</b>”. He told the Bureau he welcomed the Crown Prince’s visit and the reforms he has introduced within Saudi Arabia and that “British PR companies are fully entitled to take the Saudi riyal”. But Mitchell said the British media “shouldn't be deflected from holding the Saudi government to account” by public relations. He added that the media should continue to expose “the catastrophic and clear breaches of international humanitarian law which are taking place in Yemen”.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Image of 10 Downing Street, London Downing St, London</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The British connection</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“They have shifted the narrative - the rebranding has worked”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The fact that some of the pressure is off Saudi Arabia will leave Prime Minister Theresa May in a less awkward position when Mohammed Bin Salman arrives in the UK on 7 March. The week before the visit, the Foreign Secretary (who had previously publicly accused the Saudis of stirring up proxy wars in the Middle East) himself penned a tribute to the Crown Prince in the Times newspaper, that hardly mentioned Yemen and which could have been written by one of the Saudis’ PR firms. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Downing Street is doubling down on the trade relationship with the Kingdom,</b> even appointing a special envoy from the UK to the Saudi 2030 initiative, banker Ken Costa. The strategy of courting resource-rich Gulf countries has “accelerated” as a result of Brexit, according to one former diplomat.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It’s about getting Gulf [countries] to invest in UK assets, infrastructure projects, leveraging the relationship to get UK companies in to the piece”, the diplomat said. “It’s a bit desperate.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Peter Salisbury, a senior consulting Fellow at Chatham House, thinks the Saudi PR offensive is working, pointing to, among other things, the successful strategy of bringing more journalists in to the country. Recent columns have appeared in both the New York Times and the Washington Post extolling the virtues of MBS.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Salisbury says the Saudis managed a “clever and effective job of shifting the narrative that Saudi is a horrible conservative place, which was never the whole story. They’ve really been able to shift that to ‘Saudi is a country reforming under a young exciting dynamic leadership who shares liberal values with the west’, which isn’t the whole story either.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He added: “The rebranding has worked.”</div></div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Preferential treatment of world leaders in the media is nothing new, but the Assads have been especially determined to burnish their image — and have hired experts to do so</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. Lifestyle magazines and online outlets have published feel-good features about Assad and his wife Asma, often focusing on their glamorous lives. For example, in March of 2011 — just as Assad and his security forces initiated a brutal crackdown on political opponents that has led to the death of an estimated 10,000 Syrians — Vogue magazine ran a flattering profile of the first lady, describing her as walking "a determined swath cut through space with a flash of red soles," a reference to her Christian Louboutin heels. The Assad family paid the <b>DC-based PR firm Brown Lloyd James $5,000 a month to act as a liaison between Vogue and the first lady,</b> according to the firm. The Assads were in many ways ripe for celebrity treatment by the news media — the president, a trained ophthalmologist, received part of his education in Britain, where he met his wife, a Briton of Syrian descent who grew up in London and worked as an investment banker in New York. The campaign to make the ruling family the face of a more Westernized and open Syria began in 2006, when Mrs. Assad approached the PR firm Bell Pottinger in London. Tim Bell, a co-founder of the firm and a former media adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said Mrs. Assad contacted the firm after several first ladies, including Laura Bush, began to hold annual meetings and conferences. "She wanted to be a part of that club," Bell told the Times.</span></font><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></div></div></div>