From al-Qaeda affiliate to statesman: Adviser’s role in Syrian leader’s rise questioned

British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, alleged to have “put a tie on” al-Qaeda leader Abu Muhammad al-Jolani to create Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Shara, has come under fire from parliament.

Powell, one of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s most powerful advisers, was accused last weekend of “opening secret diplomatic channels to terrorists” using a team of “outsourced spies and secret agents funded by taxpayer money.”

According to a report in the Daily Mail, National Security Adviser Powell founded this mysterious organization after leaving his post in the Tony Blair government. Powell served as chief of staff during the infamous “dodgy dossier” incident that led the UK into the Iraq invasion.

This organization, called “Inter Mediate,” receives funding from the Foreign Office to establish contact with “non-state armed groups” and appears to have brokered the UK’s deal with Syria that led to the re-establishment of diplomatic relations earlier this month.

Powell, 68, who resigned as CEO of the mysterious NGO where he earned an annual salary of £200,000 upon returning to the corridors of the Prime Minister’s Office in November, also stands out as one of the figures who secured the highly controversial deal to transfer sovereignty of the strategically important Chagos Islands to Mauritius earlier this year.

The move comes amid allegations that “Blairites,” led by Powell and Liz Lloyd—his deputy under Tony Blair and now Starmer’s director of policy implementation—are attempting to launch a ‘power struggle’ within the Labour Party leadership.

Diplomatic sources speaking to the Daily Mail state that Inter Mediate played a central role in re-establishing relations with HTS, once linked to al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, and the Syrian government led by al-Shara.

After the deal was signed earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy traveled to Damascus to meet with Ahmed al-Shara, where Inter Mediate is said to have an office in the presidential palace.

Clinton emails: Inter Mediate linked to MI6 and SAS

In one of the emails linked to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton published by WikiLeaks, Powell wrote that Inter Mediate had close ties with the British foreign intelligence service, MI6.

In an email sent in March 2012 to Jake Sullivan, one of then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s top advisers, he said, “We are in close cooperation with the FCO [Foreign and Commonwealth Office], NSC [National Security Council], and SIS [Secret Intelligence Service] in London.”

The emails also show that Powell met with then-Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, whom he described as an “old friend” and who later became CIA chief, adding that Inter Mediate established “secret channels between rebels and governments” and operated in Nigeria, Colombia, Bahrain, Afghanistan, and North Korea.

Powell stated, “We are starting to work in Syria with [former UN Secretary-General] Kofi Annan, as well as in Yemen, Somalia, and Burma,” while Sullivan noted that Inter Mediate operated “under the radar.”

Former MI6 official Martin Griffiths was also among those who co-founded Inter Mediate with Powell.

Al-Shara’s British mentor asked to be accountable to parliament

Over the weekend, a senior Conservative politician called for a parliamentary inquiry into why Powell was given ‘special adviser’ status rather than a direct ministerial role.

This means that despite his role in establishing direct relations with foreign governments and conducting negotiations on the Chagos handover, Powell is not required to be accountable to Parliament.

Alex Burghart, the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said, “It is scandalous enough that we cannot question the national security adviser about his role in the handover of Chagos. But now it turns out he is using his private organization to establish secret channels with terrorist groups. Parliament should absolutely be able to question him on this. If the government had nothing to hide, it wouldn’t go to such lengths to keep Powell out of the cold glare of scrutiny. The Labour Party must reveal the truth and make a statement immediately.”

Inter Mediate features Powell prominently on its website, highlighting his role as “one of the key architects of the 1999 Good Friday Agreement” in Northern Ireland.

The website states that Powell founded the NGO to “share the lessons learned from the Northern Ireland peace talks and to help other leaders facing similar dilemmas.”

The website also says that Powell used his experience to play a “central role in successful peace agreements,” including ending the Basque conflict in Spain, serving as a “peace adviser” to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, and working with Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi to end the country’s civil war.

One of the architects of the Iraq invasion, from Blair’s inner circle

Powell’s role in the infamous 2002 dossier on Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction is now less remembered. It was revealed that Powell had asked a security chief to amend the draft text on the grounds that it “posed a bit of a problem” for Tony Blair’s leadership.

The latest statements from Inter Mediate, which Powell founded in 2011, emphasize that it has “made a greater commitment through a new partnership agreement with the FCDO’s [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] conflict, stability and mediation office.”

Government spending records show that Inter Mediate is funded by the UK government to provide a back channel to “non-state armed groups” due to its “high-level access to political elites.”

According to accounts published in January, the company’s total revenue up to March 2024 was £2.96 million, with the highest-paid employee—presumably Powell—earning between £190,000 and £200,000.

Government source: The people in this NGO are outsourced spies and secret agents

A government source said, “These are essentially outsourced spies and secret agents who conduct ‘back-channel’ talks with political leaders and armed groups to achieve reconciliation through negotiation.”

In a letter to Simon Hoare, chairman of the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, Burghart stated that Powell should respond to the call to testify before the parliamentary joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS), on the grounds that “all previous national security advisers have testified before the committee since the position was created in 2010.”

Burghart wrote, “I believe this raises significant constitutional issues that require more thorough scrutiny by Parliament. The government’s first duty is to defend the country, yet the government does not want the prime minister’s chief adviser on national security to be subject to scrutiny.”

A government spokesperson responded, “The government is committed to establishing a productive relationship with the JCNSS and to providing the best possible support and evidence for the committee’s important work. In line with long-standing practice, senior officials and ministers responsible for national security will provide evidence to the JCNSS.”

A government source added that Powell’s deputies would appear before the committee.

The source said, “There is an established system for the declaration and management of financial interests. As with previous administrations, interests deemed appropriate for publication for special advisers in No. 10 and the Cabinet Office are published annually. Inter Mediate is a charity that works to resolve armed conflicts around the world. Jonathan severed all ties with this organization when he rejoined the government last year.”