Mark Allen

<youtube align="right" caption"Sir Mark Allen on the future of the Middle East">oKidOKzGbcc</youtube> Sir Mark Allen is a former MI6 officer.

Education

Allen studied Arabic at Oxford.

Diplomatic Service

Allen was a member of the Diplomatic Service from 1973 to 2004. He served in the UAE, Egypt and Jordan.

Libya Negotiations

Allen was a key figure in negotiations which led to Libya's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

According to Con Coughlin, the deal followed an overture to Downing Street from Col. Gaddaffi's son Saif Gadaffi:

There followed a series of lengthy discussions between Seif al-Islam and Mark Allen, then head of counter-terrorism at Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), that were conducted within the elegant confines of London's Travellers Club. The result was Mr. Blair's triumphant announcement in late December 2003 that Col. Ghadhafi had made a "historic" decision to scrap the nuclear-weapons program whose existence he'd always denied.

Coughlin, it should be noted, was the journalist responsible for a 1995 Sunday Telegraph story accusing Saif of fraud, which was exposed as an MI6 smear in a libel action.

Departure from MI6

According to The Times, Allen left MI6 'in high dudgeon' because of the misuse of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Libya and BP

In 2005, Allen accompanied BP chief executive Lord Browne to meet Colonel Gadaffi.

Allen lobbied Jack Straw on 15 November and 9 November 2007, while working as a consultant for BP, who were negotiating an oil deal with Libya.

According to The Times the deal was being held up by Britain's refusal to include Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement:

Although in his telephone conversations with Mr Straw, Sir Mark is said to have avoided explicit reference to al-Megrahi’s fate, a government source acknowledged that this would have been unnecessary because it was “well known that the Libyans were resisting pressure for an exclusion” — and that was holding up the treaty. It is understood that between the two calls, Justice Department officials had concluded that the negotiating position agreed between the British and Scottish governments was unsustainable.

Allen was also involved in 2007 in securing the freedom of Bulgarian nurses inmprisoned by Libya on charges of having injected the HIV virus into children.

Allen's role in negotiating for BP was the subject of some criticism. Liz Stephens of politics.co.uk wrote:

As today's article on BP's lobbying of Jack Straw over Libya shows – the telephone line is always clear for big business to lobby government direct. Of course, it helps if you used to occupy a fairly senior position in government yourself – even more so if you happened to be fundamental in the negotiation of a major non-proliferation treaty with an oil rich country like Libya as is the case with Sir Mark Allen.

RUSI Seminar

Allen was one of a number of people who took part in a RUSI seminar series which led to a February 2007 paper by Professor Gwyn Prins and Lord Salisbury calling for fundamental reform of Britain's system for defence and security oversight.

Engagements

In March 2008, Allen attended the opening of BP's Muscat office, a year after the firm owon the right to develop the Khazzan/Makarem gas fields in central Oman.

Allen spoke at the Dubai Policy Watch Forum in November 2008.

Affiliations

• MI6 - former head of counterterrorism
• BP- Special Advisor
• Monitor Group Company - Senior Advisor
• St Anthony's College, Oxford - Senior Associate Member
• LSE Ideas - Board

Publications

Books

• Arabs: A New Perspective, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006.
• With Hossein Amirsadeghi, Sky Hunters: The Passion of Falconry, Thames & Hudson, 24 November 2008.
• Tribes: Tribalism in the Arab World, Continuum International Publishing Group, due October 2009.

Articles

• Why Iraqis must learn to be selfless, telegraph.co.uk, 18 April 2006.</ref>
• Middle Eastern Politics and oil, British Academy review, Issue 13, June 2009.</ref>