Trump said that “nothing’s off the table” when asked about military action against Iran on Thursday, which is one of those empty phrases that U.S. presidents always use, though it takes on a different meaning when tensions are being ratcheted up rather than eased.
Hard-liners in both Washington and Tehran are looking for pretexts to unravel the nuclear agreement and return the two countries to a more openly antagonistic posture. That doesn’t necessarily mean military conflict is inevitable, but it’s certainly not out of the question.
イランとの緊張が高まっている、という記事で、軍事紛争が必然ではないが、まったく不可能とも言えない、と。
Yemen Is the First Battleground in Trump’s Confrontation With Iran
The administration has its sights set on checkmating Tehran’s ambitions across the region. Iran’s proxies in Yemen are in the crosshairs.
BY DAN DE LUCE, PAUL MCLEARYFEBRUARY 3, 2017DAN.DELUCE@DANDELUCE
President Donald Trump’s aides see Yemen as an important battleground to signal U.S. resolve against Iran and to break with what they consider the previous administration’s failure to confront Tehran’s growing power in the region. But the tough approach carries the risk of triggering Iranian retaliation against the United States in Iraq and Syria, or even a full-blown war with Iran.
Washington has already played a role in the Yemeni civil war, supporting the Saudi-led bombing campaign against Houthi rebels for the past two years, providing hundreds of aerial refueling flights and drone surveillance missions to identify targets. The Pentagon curtailed some of its intelligence assistance last year, after Saudi Arabia drew international condemnation for the killing of scores of civilians during poorly planned airstrikes.
But ramping up pressure against the Houthis could backfire, pouring more fuel on the civil war and pushing the rebels even deeper into Tehran’s orbit, said Katherine Zimmerman, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.
The U.S. is “siding with the government that is seen as illegitimate to a majority of the population in northern Yemen,” Zimmerman said.
イランとの対立はイランが支援しているイエメンの反乱軍との紛争からはじまって、イランがイラク、シリアの米軍へ報復し、さらには、イランとの全面戦争にもなりかねない、と。
イエメンの反乱軍に圧力をかければ、反乱軍はますますイラン寄りになってくのではないか、と。
アメリカは、イエメン北部の大多数の国民から正統と認められていない政府の側についている、と。
民主主義を標榜するアメリカとしては最後の点は見逃せない。
もっとも、そうしたことは、トランプになってから始まった話しではない。
