Cherie Blair repeatedly pressured Hillary Clinton to meet a leading Qatari royal when Clinton was US secretary of state, according to newly released emails that raise fresh questions about the lobbying activities of all three political families.

The wife of the former British prime minister, Tony Blair, exchanged 19 emails with Clinton over four months in 2009 as she sought to arrange the meeting on behalf of Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned, an informal but influential ambassador for Qatar on the world stage.

“Sheika Moser [sic] has approached me privately saying they are keen to get their relationship with the USA onto a more positive footing and she was hoping for a ‘women to women’ one to one private meeting with you,” Blair wrote in the first of a series of emails addressed to Hilary [sic] and released by the US State Department after a legal battle to recover correspondence Clinton had stored on a private server.



After initially suggesting they shared a philanthropic interest in disability charities, Blair added: “I am sure the conversation would not be confined to these issues but would be about the US/Qatar relationship generally.”



A protracted series of follow-up emails then detail Blair’s attempts to seek a mutually convenient date in both women’s diaries, some cryptically only referring to “my friend from Q”.

“Great,” Blair replied to Clinton when the meeting was confirmed in principle. “When I see what a difference you are making it reminds me why politics is too important to be left to the bad people.”



Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination has prompted close scrutiny of the Gulf state’s donations to the Clinton Foundation, which was set up as a philanthropic venture after her husband left the White House.



Clinton has denied that such foreign donations had any bearing on her work as secretary of state, but the foundation has been accused of violating an agreement with the Obama administration to stop taking overseas money while she was in office to avoid any perception of undue influence.



The Blair family’s fundraising activities have also led to close scrutiny of their finances since leaving Downing Street, but they too stress that much of their work is philanthropic in nature.

A spokesperson for Cherie Blair said: “As the emails make clear, Cherie Blair established a relationship with Sheikha Mozah over a number of years based on their shared interest in disability issues.

“Cherie has been a patron of [the charity] Scope for some years, and in that capacity became involved in the Shafallah Centre for people with disabilities in Qatar, in particular as co-chair of its annual disability conference.”

She was “merely acting as a conduit – on a woman to woman basis” between Mozah and Clinton, the spokesperson added.

The emails were exchanged at a time when Qatar was accelerating its drive to invest heavily in London property and businesses while also engaged in a push to bring major sporting events to Doha.

Both were elements of a move to project “soft power” that intermingled the interests of the ruling al-Thani family and the future of gas-rich Qatar as outlined in the then emir’s 2030 Vision plan.

The global education initiative fronted by Sheikha Mozah and the Qatar Foundation, another charitable arm, are also parts of that jigsaw – opening links with other countries away from official diplomatic channels on a sporting, cultural or philanthropic basis.

In 2009, Qatar was in the early stages of a bid to host the 2022 World Cup that would eventually end in victory in December of the following year and has proved endlessly controversial ever since, amid allegations of bribery and collusion.

One of its opponents in the race was the US, with Bill Clinton fronting its bid. Like the rest of the US delegation, Clinton was bitterly disappointed when Qatar overcame its bid.

In May, it emerged that the Qatar 2022 organising committee had made donations of between $250,000 (£160,000) and $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation in 2013.

The Clinton emails, which were voluntarily turned over by the secretary of state and released this week by the State Department after intervention by a US judge, also show other close links to the Blair family.



One memo from the informal Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal shows him acting as a go-between to persuade the secretary of state to help promote Tony Blair’s short-lived bid to become EU president.



“Jonathan Powell tells me that remarks about Tony would be appreciated but that what would really be significant will be your conversation with Merkel,” Blumenthal wrote.



He also wrote repeatedly to warn Clinton of declining US relations with Britain, urging her to help the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, repair ties between the countries or risk a still chillier reception from the opposition leader, David Cameron.



“Consensus across the board in Britain – center, right, left – is that the Atlantic alliance, the special relationship, the historic bond since World War II, is shattered,” Blumenthal said.



“There is no dissenting voice, not one, and there are no illusions. Opinion is unanimous. The bottom line is that the Obama administration’s denigration of the UK is seen as the summation of the Bush era.”



Other emails show friends of Bill Clinton lobbying on behalf of Israel. “I trust I am not violating a protocol, but word has it that the Israeli ambassador has been trying to meet with you to no avail,” Brian Greenspun, a former college roommate, wrote.

“I can’t imagine why your folks would want to keep you two apart. I hear he is solid. So, that’s the heads up. I am always available if there is a problem with which I can be helpful,” he wrote.