Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Libya's Colonel Gadhafi to flee the country and find "a safe place to go" at the height of the Arab Spring, according to an email from his adviser published as part of the latest batch of private emails released by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday.
The details of Blair and Gadhafi's correspondence were revealed under the U.S. Freedom of Information (FOI) Act after a federal judge ordered the U.S. State Department in May to release emails from Clinton's private email account in batches up to January 2016.
The order was in response to a FOI lawsuit filed by Vice News to release all of Clinton's emails during her time as Secretary of State. She used a personal email address to conduct top-level correspondence instead of official government email accounts that are protected by secure U.S. government servers.
In an email exchange between Blair's head of strategy, Catherine Rimmer, and Clinton's senior adviser, Jake Sullivan, on February 25 2011, weeks after protests in the Libyan city of Benghazi ignited the revolution that would topple the Libyan dictator, Rimmer details a call between Blair and Gadhafi.
"The absolute key thing is that the bloodshed and violence must stop," Rimmer quotes Blair as telling Gadhafi in the call earlier that day. "If you have a safe place to go then you should go there, because this will not end peacefully unless that happens and there has to be a process of change," he added. "That process of change can be managed and we have to find a way of managing it."
"I have talked to people and everyone wants a peaceful end to this."
Blair stepped down as British prime minister in 2007 and became special envoy to the Middle East for the Quartet, which includes the U.N., the U.S., the EU and Russia. The exchange with the Libyan leader shows that he was attempting to use his influence with Gadhafi to find a resolution to the crisis in the country.
"The U.S. and the EU are in a tough position right now and I need to take something back to them which ensures this ends peacefully," Rimmer quotes him as telling Gadhafi.
"If people saw the leader standing aside they would be content with that. If this goes on for another day/two days we will go past the point. I'm saying this because I believe it deeply. If we can't get a way through/out very quickly this will go past the point of no return."
The day following the alleged phone call, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that restricted Gadhafi's travel, referred his regime to the ICC and froze his assets.
In March 2011, a coalition of NATO forces including Britain and the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone in the country, supported by a U.N. resolution. Gadhafi went into hiding in the country in August that year but was eventually captured and killed by rebels in October.
Tony Blair's office declined to comment.
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