Yamamah qui continue à chauffer et les Saoudiens qui parlent même du Rafale

Remercions notre lecteur “FrenchFrogger”, aujourd’hui sur notre 'Forum’, qui nous signale cet article du Telegraph où est évoquée pour la première fois publiquement la possibilité que les Saoudiens transfèrent leur commande de 72 Eurofighter Typhoon au profit des Français et de leur Rafale.

«The government of Saudi Arabia is set to tear up its £76bn agreement with Britain for Eurofighter Typhoons and hand the contract to France if the Serious Fraud Office opens up secret Swiss bank accounts allegedly linked to members of the Saudi royal family.

»Senior British government sources last night predicted that the Saudi authorities would stand by their promise to cancel the recently signed order for 72 Eurofighter Typhoons if the SFO goes ahead with plans to open up potentially embarrassing bank accounts as part of its long-running investigation into allegations of bribery.

»The Eurofighters are being built by a European consortium including BAE Systems, Britain's largest defence contractor. Now, Saudi Arabia is considering buying the Rafale, made by France's national contractor Dassault. It is understood President Jacques Chirac has stepped up his lobbying of the Saudi authorities.

»“I think they [the Saudis] genuinely will follow through with this threat,” said a government source. “Chirac is waiting in the wings. They are desperate to sell the Rafale.”

»But a senior defence official said the SFO is unlikely to pull back from its investigation focusing on allegations that BAE bribed Saudi defence procurement officials with millions of pounds-worth of lavish gifts including holidays in Europe and a gold Rolls-Royce in the 1990s to ensure the Saudis continued to buy from Britain under an original defence contract, Al-Yamamah.

»“The Saudis don't understand how they can sign a big contract with the UK Government, yet here we are, accusing them of dodgy dealings. The Government can't simply quash the SFO investigation. It is between a rock and a hard place,” he said.»

Nous avons peu de commentaire à ajouter et il nous importait surtout de signaler cette situation. L’évolution de l’affaire de l’enquête Yamamah suit son cours normal. Les différents acteurs engagés semblent particulièrement étanches aux arguments des autres parties, et donc rétifs à toute influence décisive. Le service SFO suit son enquête, le gouvernement britannique ne peut l’influencer et les Saoudiens n’acceptent pas la perspective d’être inquiétés par le SFO. La situation reflète au moins un “conflit de cultures”, sinon de civilisations, entre SFO et Saoudiens, avec le gouvernement Blair au milieu, entre marteau et enclume, qui préférerait partir en vacances.

Mis en ligne le 26 novembre 2006 à 16H29