The other day, I came across an article about an event in 2019, in which the then UK ambassador to Yemen, Michael Aaron, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Amman Jordan. The ceremony was the opening of a Yemeni cigarette factory, part-owned by the British American Tobacco (BAT). The ambassador, who by the way is no longer with the Foreign Office, even went further and praised the new facility in a televised interview. Needless to say that this act was a breach of the guidelines in the UK to not mix with the tobacco industry overseas.
The article went on and explained how cigarette smoking has increased considerably in the Middle East, and how Jordan had the highest cigarette consumption rate in the world, in a 2020 survey by World Health Organization (WHO). The article also mentions that some time after the event, Mr. Aron did explain that his action was not appropriate and that it was an honest mistake.
Now, I don’t know if this participation on Mr. Aron’s part is responsible for him no longer being at the Foreign Office (if so, I am impressed with the UK oversight of its foreign representatives), but I could not help but to think of UK’s Opium smuggling into and Opium wars with China in the 19th century. I guess no matter what you do, a smuggler of illicit substances, cannot give up its habits and behavior, and as Roseanne Roseannadanna said decades ago, "It just goes to show you. It's always something. If it's not one thing, it's another." So if it is not smuggling and selling Opium to the Chinese, it is building cigarette factories in Jordan through a Yemeni company.
Paris, April 3, 2023
Zeejay