January 24, 2020

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo in his interpellation on behalf of the JCP at the House of Representatives plenary meeting on January 23 brought up the growing tensions in the Middle East along with domestic issues.

In response to Shii’s grilling, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo displayed his subservient stance toward the United States.

Shii pointed out that PM Abe assumes an uncritical attitude toward the U.S. killing of a top Iranian general. He asked Abe if he approves or disapproves of the U.S. outrage which is a violation of the UN Charter. Abe replied that Japan is not directly concerned in the incident and therefore unable to get detailed information regarding what happened. In addition, Abe cited the U.S. argument that the assassination was an exercise of the self-defense right.

Shii referred to Abe’s handling of the U.S. Trump administration’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which led to the current tensions between the two countries. Shii said that while urging Iran to stay in and abide by the nuclear agreement, Abe has not called on President Trump to return to the deal.

Abe expressed his intent to hold serious discussions with President Trump so that the Iran nuclear issue will be peacefully resolved and that peace and stability in the region will be secured.

Shii also took up the issue of the planned dispatch of Self-Defense Forces units to the Middle East.

Shii warned that if a military conflict breaks out between the U.S. and Iran, it would lead to a situation where the SDF will fight together with the U.S. forces as the SDF shares sensitive military information with the U.S. Abe put forward an irresponsibly optimistic view that there is little risk of the SDF units being involved in a battle.

Shii criticized Abe as being a pawn of the Trump administration. He stressed that in order to contribute to the de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Japan should make diplomatic efforts to persuade Trump to go back to the Iran nuclear deal instead of dispatching the SDF troops to the region.

Past related articles:
> Article 9 protection activists oppose MSDF dispatch to Middle East [January 9, 2020]
> JCP calls for diplomatic resolution of the tension in the Gulf [January 7, 2020]