A bloodless coup to take control of an Arab Gulf state is being plotted by an unlikely alliance that includes a powerful firm of US lobbyists and a provincial English high-street solicitor.
Peter Cathcart, a 59-year-old lawyer from Farnham, has been hired by the ousted crown prince of Ras al-Khaimah (RAK) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to coordinate the plot aimed at returning him to power after seven years in exile.
Documents seen by the Guardian show that Cathcart has acted as a paid agent for Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Qasimi in a multimillion-dollar campaign to “undermine the current regime’s standing” and to force the leadership of the UAE in Abu Dhabi, which has powerful influence over the emirate, to “make a change.”
RAK is a strategically important part of the UAE, 80km from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz. Sheikh Khalid, 66, was ousted by his father and brother as de facto leader in 2003.
The campaign alleges the regime presents an international security threat because the kingdom has become “a rogue state and gateway for Iran,” allowing the shipment of weapons, including nuclear weapons parts, drugs and blood diamonds as well as military personnel and terrorists from al-Qaeda and other networks.
The plot involves highly paid US public relations consultants, Washington lobbyists and former US Special Forces strategists hired at a cost of at least US$3.7 million. It is not suggested that Cathcart’s involvement is unlawful.
The plotters have claimed the RAK regime is implicated in an alleged terror plot to blow up the world’s tallest building in Dubai, and a possible Iranian attack on US participants in the America’s Cup yachting race, due to take place in the emirate but later cancelled.
The deposed sheikh’s focus on links between RAK and Iran appears calculated to turn international opinion, particularly in Washington, against the family who rejected him.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the US politicians, including more than a dozen member of Congress, from whom Sheikh Khalid has sought support.
In February, he made a speech in Washington in which he stated: “I am troubled that the current regime has allowed RAK to devolve into a rogue state and strategic gateway for Iran. Published reports in the Gulf region have repeatedly indicated that Iran has taken advantage of our free trade zones, using them as a transfer point to smuggle cargo, including arms, electronics, weapons parts, drugs and even humans to Africa, Europe and Asia.”
His US communications team insists the claims are “well sourced,” but they were rejected by the UAE embassy in London.
The UAE also denied the Sheikh’s claim that RAK has links to Iran’s nuclear program and that a port in RAK has in effect become an Iranian base, allowing Tehran to avoid international sanctions.
“These appear to be old, scurrilous rumors which Sheik Khalid has made on numerous occasions,” a spokesman for the UAE said in a statement. “His claims are baseless and without foundation and should be seen in the context of his long-standing dispute with his family.”
Sources close to the plot believe it is nearing an end. Sheikh Khalid is understood to have returned to the UAE from exile in London last month and has been in Abu Dhabi meeting officials from the UAE federal government, they said.
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