\tDurant ses tribulations<\/a> en Russie et en Italie la semaine derni\u00e8re, \u00e0 l’escale romaine pour \u00eatre pr\u00e9cis, le secr\u00e9taire d’\u00c9tat Kerry a du r\u00e9pondre \u00e0 une question d’un journaliste US sur la possible livraison de missiles sol-air russes S-300 \u00e0 la Russie dont l’on parle tant<\/a> depuis presque une semaine. Kerry a r\u00e9pondu d’une fa\u00e7on int\u00e9ressante, en deux temps, d’abord en \u00e9cartant de facto<\/em> la question, puis, sans autre sollicitation de la part des journalistes, en y revenant sur sa derni\u00e8re intervention, litt\u00e9ralement comme s’il avait r\u00e9alis\u00e9 que certaines pr\u00e9cisions devaient \u00eatre donn\u00e9es, ou comme si on les lui avait rappel\u00e9es en lui passant discr\u00e8tement une petite note… (Transcription officielle, du 9 mai 2013<\/a> : entre les deux r\u00e9ponses de Kerry, la seconde terminant la conf\u00e9rence de presse, se situe une intervention assez cons\u00e9quente de la ministre italienne des affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res Bonnano qui faisait conf\u00e9rence commune avec Kerry.) :<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tQuestion<\/em><\/strong>: \u00abDo you have nothing to say about the Russian the reports of Russian surface-to-air missiles, pretty state-of-the-art, going to Syria now?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tSecretary Kerry<\/em><\/strong>: \u00abI had my say with President Putin and I had my say with Sergey Lavrov, and we made an agreement to go to a negotiation in the next days. And I’m not going to get into here, now, at this moment, as I said, distinguishing features between one country’s aid and another country’s aid and who’s doing what. That would be counterproductive to what we’re trying to accomplish. I think we’ve made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance. That is on record; that hasn’t changed. But I’m not going to get into the qualitative differences at this moment.<\/em>\u00bb […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tSecretary Kerry<\/em><\/strong>: \u00abCan I just add, so that you can go back to the record on this, because I want you to have it we have previously stated that the missiles, particularly the<\/em> [inaudible] [S]-300, is potentially destabilizing with respect to the state of Israel. And so we’ve made it very clear historically that that is a concern of the United States. But again, I think drawing the which is more important relative balance, which is clearly going to be part of the negotiation in Geneva, at this point is doesn’t take us where we need to go, notwithstanding that we believe, as I said, that it is destabilizing.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t DEBKAFiles<\/em>, qui avait lanc\u00e9 la nouvelle (des S-300 mais aussi des SS-26, voir le 8 mai 2013<\/a>]), poursuit son analyse \u00e0 partir des d\u00e9clarations de Kerry, en dramatisant la situation. Pour DEBKAFiles<\/em>, les livraisons sont imminentes et ouvrent un afflux de syst\u00e8mes d’armes tr\u00e8s avanc\u00e9s en Syrie, avec l’extension et l’intensit\u00e9 hauss\u00e9e des combats qui iront avec. L’analyse est tr\u00e8s critique autant pour la politique g\u00e9n\u00e9rale du bloc BAO, mais particuli\u00e8rement de la politique US jug\u00e9e capitularde. (DEBKAFiles<\/em>, le 10 mai 2013<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00ab…Thursday, May 9, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the transfer of advanced missile defense systems from Russia to Syria would be a destabilizing factor for Israel’s security.<\/em> […] In his comments, Kerry said nothing about how the US intended to stop the sale or respond to the deployment in Syria of weapons that would not only affect Israel’s security but lock the sky against US air action against Syria and the imposition of a no-fly zone.<\/em> […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbWashington, the West and Israel have been progressively losing bargaining chips in the weeks since a coalition of Syrian, Hizballah and Iranian Bassij troops began turning the tide of war against the rebels, pushing them out of one area after another which they had captured, including parts of the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo. This pro-Assad military alliance and its gains have been largely ignored by Western media.<\/em> […]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbIn view of the US administration’s head in the sand and the spreading of a strong Russian umbrella for Bashar Assad over to his Lebanese Hizballah ally as well, Hassan Nasrallah was not surprisingly cockier than ever when he declared in a speech Thursday night that Syrian territory rather than Lebanon would henceforth be the stage for the combined Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah resistance front against Israel.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t L’information sur les S-300 (seulement), initialement venue de DEBKAFiles<\/em>, avait \u00e9t\u00e9 reprise par le Wall Street Journal<\/em> (WSJ) \u00e0 partir de ce que l’article pr\u00e9sentait comme des confidences d’officiels de l’administration Obama, mentionnant des pr\u00e9occupations isra\u00e9liennes concernant une possible vente de S-300 \u00e0 la Syrie. (WSJ du 9 mai 2013<\/a>) : \u00abIsrael has warned the U.S. that a Russian deal is imminent to sell advanced ground-to-air missile systems to Syria, weapons that would significantly boost the regime’s ability to stave off intervention in its civil war. U.S. officials said on Wednesday that they are analyzing the information Israel provided about the suspected sale of S-300 missile batteries to Syria, but wouldn’t comment on whether they believed such a transfer was near.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t Reuters reprend la nouvelle du WSJ le m\u00eame 9 mai 2013<\/a>, l’assortit d’un avis isra\u00e9lien qui fait s\u00e9rieux (\u00abWe have raised objections to this<\/em> [sale<\/em>] with the Russians, and the Americans have too, an Israeli official told Reuters<\/em>\u00bb) ; et, surtout, cl\u00f4t sa d\u00e9p\u00eache sur des confidences d’un expert de l’authoritative<\/em> groupe de publication Jane’s<\/em> selon lequel le S-300, c’est peanuts<\/em> pour Isra\u00ebl. Remarquons aussit\u00f4t que ce n’est peut-\u00eatre pas faux … Alors, comme dit le grand Will, Much Ado About Nothing<\/em> ? Remarquons \u00e9galement que l’agitation provoqu\u00e9e par la perspective des S-300 fait tout de m\u00eame des peanuts<\/em> en question des cacahu\u00e8tes \u00e0 potentialit\u00e9 sacr\u00e9ment explosive.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abRobert Hewson, an IHS Jane’s air power analyst, said that were Syria to receive the S-300 it would probably take several months to deploy and operate the system. But he suggested it would not pose a big challenge for Israel’s hi-tech air force. It’s a fairly well-established, fairly well-understood system, so there is a corpus of knowledge, particularly among Israel’s friends, about how to deal with this system, he said. Once activated, the S-300 could easily be spotted thanks to its distinctive radar signal, Hewson said, and from there it’s a fairly short step to taking it out. It’s not a wonder-weapon.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbCyprus bought the S-300 and eventually positioned it on the Greek island of Crete. Israel, which has close ties with Nicosia and Athens, may have tested its jets against that S-300’s capabilities during Mediterranean overflights, Hewson said.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t Et les Russes, que disent-ils ? Le grand Serguei, remis de ses effusions<\/a> avec John Kerry et redevenu aussi grave qu’un M\u00e9tropolite, affirme qu’il n’y a rien de nouveau. C’est-\u00e0-dire qu’il n’y a pas de plan pour vendre quelque chose de nouveau mais il y a certainement l’intention d’ex\u00e9cuter les contrats d’ores et d\u00e9j\u00e0 sign\u00e9s, et il en existe un, datant de 2010, portant sur $900 millions et quatre batteries de six lanceurs avec 144 missiles S-300. Outre Russia Today<\/em> le 10 mai 2013<\/a>, Antiwar.com<\/em> du 11 mai 2013<\/a> rapporte la nouvelle en ces termes : \u00abRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has responded to US and Israeli pressure on arms sales to Syria by saying that no new deals would be made in the near future to sell Syria any additional defensive weaponry. At the same time, Lavrov confirmed that there are standing contracts already signed for defensive weapons to Syria, and that such contracts would be fulfilled irrespective of US opposition.<\/em>\u00bb (Le m\u00eame 11 mai 2013<\/a>, un communiqu\u00e9 du minist\u00e8re russe des affaires \u00e9trang\u00e8res annonce que les missiles seront livr\u00e9s.) <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t La plus r\u00e9cente nouvelle (du 11 mai 2013<\/a>), qui prolonge l’int\u00e9r\u00eat de l’affaire en la dramatisant, c’est l’annonce d’une visite, d\u00e9cid\u00e9e d’une fa\u00e7on impromptue, de Netanyahou \u00e0 Poutine, dans la ville de Sotchi probablement. Visite impromptue et, semble-t-il, d’urgence, et \u00e0 la demande de Netanyahou semble-t-il encore, et enfin dont il semble difficile qu’elle ne comprenne pas comme plat du jour la question des S-300 en connexion avec les attaques isra\u00e9liennes. DEBKAFiles<\/em> commente abondamment la nouvelle ce m\u00eame 11 mai 2013<\/a>, la pr\u00e9sentant \u00e9videmment comme une requ\u00eate pressante du Premier ministre isra\u00e9lien de ne pas livrer des S-300 \u00e0 la Syrie.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abOur sources now add that the prime minister’s chances of averting the sale are extremely slim. A series of prominent figures have already tried talking the Russian president out of the sale and failed, starting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on May 7, followed Friday May 10 by British premier David Cameron who saw Putin in Sochi and German Foreign Minister Guido Westernwelle who met his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov in Warsaw.<\/em> […] <\/p>\n<\/p>\n