Kerry à la gloire de la Russie et de “Serguei”

Kerry à la gloire de la Russie et de “Serguei”

Par ailleurs, ce 10 mai 2013, on trouve une Note d’analyse sur la rencontre Kerry-Lavrov à Moscvou, sur la question de la crise syrienne. John Kerry a fait une longue déclaration préliminaire lors de la conférence de presse commune, avec Lavrov, à la suite de leur journée d’entretien. Nous avons jugé que ces déclarations de Kerry valaient la lecture, en raison de l’enthousiasme de ses propos sur la Russie, tel que nous le détaillons dans notre texte référencé.

Ces extraits viennent du texte officiel US de la conférence de presse commune Kerry-Lavrov du 7 mai 2013, après une journée d’entretiens avec “Serguei”. On y ajoute une question-réponse précisément sur la Syrie.

«Thank you very much, Sergey. Thank you very, very much. Thank you for a very generous welcome. It’s been great to be here with you today, and we’ve had very thorough, very cooperative and extensive conversations, and I’m deeply appreciative for the hospitality that the Foreign Minister and the President have both afforded to me today.

»I might comment that it was a beautiful day here in Moscow with a good feeling as I sensed people’s anticipation for the celebration of Victory Day. It’s a great honor for me to be here, for me to celebrate the victory of the Great Patriotic War and Russia’s enormous contribution in that war. Many people have never focused on the extraordinary losses, almost 30 million people lost in Russia, and its then-accompanying states. And it’s particularly poignant for us to be here at this point in time when we are considering how to resolve yet another conflict, but Victory Day is a reminder to everybody – or at least it should be – that despite different points of view, committed partners can find a way to accomplish great things together when the world needs it, and this is one of those moments where the Foreign Minister and I, our presidents – President Obama and President Putin – agree that it’s important for leadership to be demonstrated as an alternative to perpetual conflict. [...]

»In addition, Russia was enormously cooperative – has been and is today – with respect to Afghanistan, the WTO, Iran, and North Korea. Those are the big items, those are the big issues, on which issues like war and peace hang and fall. And so I want to thank Sergey for his cooperative efforts with respect to those issues, and I know President Obama is grateful to President Putin and to the Russian people.

»In addition, I want to say a few words. We did discuss a broad array of issues, but I would like to focus, if I can for a moment, on the issue that Sergey just talked about with respect to Syria. It was clearly one of the important reasons for my coming to Moscow today, apart from the need to discuss the other issues. I thank all of you for your patience. I know it’s been a long day. But Foreign Minister Lavrov and I have conducted a broad discussion with President Putin and together about our increasing cooperation, particularly with respect to the issues surrounding Syria. I want to express my thanks to President Putin for the significant amount of time that he gave to a very productive and very warm and friendly discussion that we had today. And I think it has contributed significantly to our ability to map a road ahead, because President Putin specifically turned to Foreign Minister Lavrov and designated him to work directly with me on this effort, and we have decided on the following, to follow up on what Sergey said:

»We believe that the Geneva communique is the important track to end the bloodshed in Syria, and it should not be a piece of paper. It should not be a forgotten communique of diplomacy. It should be the roadmap, the implemented manner by which the people of Syria could find their way to the new Syria, and by which the bloodshed, the killing, the massacres can end. Encouraging the stated intentions of the Syrian Government and the opposition groups to find a political solution, both have said they want to, both are committed to it. And recently, the opposition came to Istanbul and signed a set of declarations regarding its embrace of the Geneva communique.

»And so to that end, Foreign Minister Lavrov and I have agreed that as soon as is practical, possibly and hopefully by the end of this month, we will convene – seek to convene an international conference as a follow-on to last summer’s Geneva conference. And the specific work of this next conference will be to bring representatives of the government and the opposition together to determine how we can fully implement the means of the communique, understanding that the communique’s language specifically says that the Government of Syria and the opposition have to put together, by mutual consent, the parties that will then become the transitional government itself.

»Our two countries, the United States and Russia, reiterate our commitment to the sovereignty and the territorial unity of Syria, and to the full implementation of the Geneva communique, recognizing this requires the mutual consent of both parties. Therefore, we have agreed to use our good offices, both of us, to bring both sides to the table working with our other core coalition partners and other allies and interested parties to bring both sides to the table in partnership with the concerned foreign countries that are committed themselves to helping the Syrians to find a promising political solution within the Geneva framework.

»We’ve also affirmed our commitment to a negotiated settlement as the essential means of ending the bloodshed, addressing humanitarian disaster in Syria, and addressing the problem of the security of chemical weapons and forestalling further regional instability. We believe that full implementation of the Geneva communique calls for a transition governing body as specifically set forth in the language of the communique, which is formed by mutual consent with the support of the international community and enjoying full executive authority – that means the full authority to run and manage the government, including the military and security services, and then doing so as soon as we can possibly implement it is the best way to resolve the crisis in Syria.

»So I thank my friend, Sergey, for some terrific work today. They were great efforts, and again, I reiterate my gratitude to President Putin for a very generous welcome here. Thank you.» [...]

Question: «[Inaudible] ... anyway, why should the Syrian people have any more – why should the Syrian people have any more confidence today that what you have announced – hopes for a conference by the end of the month perhaps and a joint effort to try to encourage both sides to come to the table – is any more likely to stop the violence given how many deaths have occurred and given particularly that your view is that Assad must go. And why should the Assad government go to a negotiation that entails its own demise?»

Secretary Kerry: «Well, the – let me begin with the alternative. The alternative is that there’s even more violence. The alternative is that Syria heads closer to an abyss, if not over the abyss, and into chaos. The alternative is that the humanitarian crisis will grow, and the alternative is that there may be even a breakup in Syria or ethnic attacks and ethnic cleansing and other results which threaten the stability of the region and challenge the conscience of good people everywhere in the world. That’s the alternative.

»Now, up until now, I think there has been a perception that Russia and the United States haven’t been particularly on the same page of cooperating in this effort. So what I think is significant is that we are here to say that we are going to cooperate in trying to implement the Geneva communique, and I think our understanding of that communique is very similar, and there’s actually more agreement even though our position has been that it’s impossible for me as an individual to understand how Syria could possibly be governed in the future by the man who has committed the things that we know have taken place. But that’s not – I’m not going to decide that tonight. And I’m not going to decide that in the end. Because the Geneva communique says that the transitional government has to be chosen by mutual consent by the parties. Who are the parties? The parties are the current regime and the opposition. So what we’re going to undertake to do is to try to get them in a position where they, representing the people they represent – Syria and the interests they represent – put people into a transitional government by mutual consent...»

John Kerry (avec l’aide de dedefensa.org)