L’Angleterre, l’Arabie, Yamamah, le Typhoon et “Dieu et mon Droit”

Il y a quelques semaines, nous signalions la réapparition du dossier du “contrat Yamamah”, entre le Royaume-Uni et l’Arabie Saoudite, dans les plus mauvaises conditions et au plus mauvais moment possible pour les relations fructueuses entre les deux royaumes. La chose se confirme.

Le Sunday Times nous confirme que les Saoudiens sont furieux, au point d’envisager une rupture des relations diplomatiques avec le Royaume-Uni. Ils ne supportent pas que la justice britannique puisse envisager de venir fouiller dans les affaires personnelles des princes par myriades qui peuplent le pays, et qui, éventuellement, signent des contrats pour des avions de combat britanniques, — et qui, éventuellement, seraient sur le point de ne plus le faire.

(Cas du Typhoon : «A defence official said that the preliminary contract, signed last August, to sell the first 24 of 72 promised Typhoons, better known as Eurofighters, was then temporarily suspended. […] Downing Street is said to have persuaded the Saudis to reverse for the time being their decision to suspend the Typhoon payments. However, the Saudis made clear they would carry out their threats unless the demands in their letter were met.»)

Tony Blair est dans une vilaine affaire et dans de beaux draps. On ne manipule pas facilement les Saoudiens lorsqu’ils sont touchés dans leurs comptes bancaires suisses et dans leurs pratiques ancestrales et l’on ne manipule pas aisément la justice britannique lorsqu’elle s’applique à faire prévaloir le Droit dont on sait qu’il est le don de Dieu fait à la vertueuse Angleterre.

Voyons cela.

«Saudi Arabia is threatening to suspend diplomatic ties with Britain unless Downing Street intervenes to block an investigation into a £60m “slush fund” allegedly set up for some members of its royal family.

»A senior Saudi diplomat in London has delivered an ultimatum to Tony Blair that unless the inquiry into an allegedly corrupt defence deal is dropped, diplomatic links between Britain and Saudi Arabia will be severed, a defence source has disclosed.

»The Saudis, key allies in the Middle East, have also threatened to cut intelligence co-operation with Britain over Al-Qaeda.

»They have repeated their threat that they will terminate payments on a defence contract that could be worth £40 billion and safeguard at least 10,000 British jobs.

»The Saudis are furious about the criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into allegations that BAE Systems, Britain’s biggest defence company, set up the “slush fund” to support the extravagant lifestyle of members of the Saudi royal family.

»The payments, in the form of lavish holidays, a fleet of luxury cars including a gold Rolls-Royce, rented apartments and other perks, are alleged to have been paid to ensure the Saudis continued to buy from BAE under the so-called Al-Yamamah deal, rather than going to another country. Al-Yamamah is the biggest defence contract in British history and has kept BAE in business for 20 years.

»At least five people have been arrested in the probe. They include Peter Wilson, BAE’s managing director of international programmes, and Tony Winship, a former company official who oversaw two travel and service firms that are alleged to have been conduits for the payments. Both deny any wrongdoing.

»The Saudi threat was made in September after the royal family became alarmed at the latest turn in the fraud inquiry. Sources close to the investigation say the Saudis “hit the roof” after discovering that SFO lawyers had persuaded a magistrate in Switzerland to force disclosure about a series of confidential Swiss bank accounts.»

Mis en ligne le 19 novembre 2006 à 12H35