日々の感想

ベネズエラがイギリスのイングランド銀行に預けている金の返還手続きを申し込んだら、逆に「手に入れた金で何をするのか」という質問状が来て、所有権がベネズエラにある金塊を取り戻せない事態が発生している。イングランド銀行は、ベネズエラ政府に所有権がある金を、マドゥロ大統領が私的目的で流用する危険性を疑っている、という無理な説明をしている。カネを何に使用するかは、イングランド銀行が関知する事ではない。

先にドイツが米国に預けていた金の回収作業をしたところ、何年も待たされた上でやっと回収できたのだが、渡された金の延べ棒は、ドイツが預けた物ではなかった。米国は、実際のところ帳簿に記載された金をきちんと保管しておらず、別の目的で流用しているのが実態で、ドイツから請求を受けてから、慌ててかき集めたのではないかと憶測されている。

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UK Blatantly Violates Norms of Decent Behavior
Peter KORZUN | 10.11.2018
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/11/10/uk-blatantly-violates-norms-of-decent-behavior.html

電事連や電研など幾多ある業界団体、関連団体の中で、各社から派遣されている職員の関係が、友好協調から緊張対立に変化するのですね。日本も変わりますね。東電または関電出身者が議長を務める各種会議で、「お前、このやろう」と罵声を浴びせたり、殴り合いとかするのかな？横に座っている人の顔を見ただけでイラっとするでしょうが、がんばってください（笑）。

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中部電力、関西地区の基本料無料
共同
11/9(金) 16:48配信

　中部電力が今月から関西地区で始めた家庭向けの電力販売で基本料金を無料にしたことが9日、分かった。電力大手10社で基本料金や最低料金を無料にするのは初めて。顧客基盤がない関西で販売を拡大するため、思い切った料金とした。

　家庭向けの電気料金の内訳として、契約アンペアごとに定める「基本料金」と、契約アンペアにかかわらず一定額を徴収する「最低料金」がある。中部電は基本料金、関西で競合する関西電力は最低料金を採用している。

　関電は一般家庭向けの最低料金を月額334円（従量電灯A）としているが、中部電は契約60アンペア未満の基本料金を無料に設定した。

1本目：イスラエル空軍がシリア領内にいるイラン軍を自由に爆撃する権利を認めて欲しいという、米国からロシアに対するお願い。

2本目：それに対するロシア側の回答。イスラエルは、ロシア機撃墜事件後であっても、ロシアに数分前の事前通告する約束しかしないので、認められない。シリアに供与したS-300はフルスペックでない上に、国土全体への配備数も少ない。250km先の認識能力は地上12〜15km以上を飛行する物体となるが、実際の爆撃でそんなに高い高度を飛ぶ戦闘機はない。現実の地形には山などの障害物があるから、実際の探知能力はカタログ値よりずっと落ちる。低空を守ることができるのはレーダーから半径10キロ以内である。イスラエルが決意を持ってやれば、現状でも爆撃できる。今はロシア兵が運用しているが、運用をシリア兵に移行したときの運用能力にも左右される。

関連記事

米国がロシアにお願い事をしているということは、米国はロシアに価値のある何かを差し出さなければならない。トランプが何か発表するたびに、やれやれ、やっちまえと一緒になって騒いでいる保守派の専門家（棒）集団がいるが、世の中は彼らが指摘する方向に動くわけではない。

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US hopes Russia will keep letting Israel hit Iran in Syria
By Tovah Lazaroff, REUTERS
November 7, 2018 21:24
https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-hopes-Russia-will-keep-letting-Israel-hit-Iran-in-Syria-571334

The United States said on Wednesday it hoped Russia would continue to allow Israel to strike Iranian targets in Syria, despite Moscow’s supply of the S-300 air defense system to the Syrian government.

“Russia has been permissive, in consultation with the Israelis, about Israeli strikes against Iranian targets inside Syria. We certainly hope that that permissive approach will continue,” Ambassador James Jeffrey, Washington’s Syria envoy, said in a conference call with reporters.

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He explained that aside from the Russian military actions in Syria, “You’ve got four other outside military forces – the Israeli, the Turkish, the Iranian and the American – all operating inside Syria right now. It’s a dangerous situation,” Jeffrey said.

Moscow said in October that it had delivered the S-300 surface-to-air missiles after it accused Israel of indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military jet by Syrian air defenses following an Israeli air strike nearby.

Like Russia, Iran is a key military supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Israel regards Iran as its most dangerous enemy and has staged repeated air raids against its military and allied militias deployed in Syria.

“Israel has an existential interest in blocking Iran from deploying long-range power projection systems... inside Syria to be used against Israel. We understand the existential interest and we support Israel,” Jeffrey said.

The downing of the Russian jet in September underscored the risks attached to the presence of numerous foreign militaries operating in proximity in Syria, he added.

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“Our immediate effort is to try to calm that situation down and then move on to a long-term solution.”

US policy is to ensure the enduring defeat of Islamic State, work on a solution to the conflict under the terms of United Nations Security Council resolution 2254, and ensure that all Iranian-commanded forces leave Syria entirely, Jeffrey said.

He spoke just days after meeting in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has insisted that its aerial strikes in Syria have not been curtailed, but Moscow-Jerusalem ties have been tense since the September 17 downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane.

Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin have not met since that incident. They initially intended to meet on the side lines of the Paris Peace Forum on November 11, but their meeting was canceled due to French objections to side-bar meetings at its 100th anniversary event to mark the end of World War I.

A bilateral meeting between Trump and Putin was similarly canceled. A new date was set for the G20 in Buenos Aries at the end of this month, whereas no new date has been set for the Netanyahu-Putin meeting.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov publicly told Israel this week that its air strikes in Syria were inflaming the region, adding that Russia had previously warned Israel privately against such strikes.

The US seeks to regularize cease-fires now in place in Syria, move toward a political solution, and then have all foreign forces that have entered the conflict since 2011 – except Russia – leave.

Iran has said it will stay in Syria as long as Assad wants it to. Turkey has staged two incursions into northern Syria since 2016 that were aimed at curbing the role of Kurdish forces, which the United States is supporting, against Islamic State.

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S-300 fear factor: Will Israel risk bombing Syria now?
Published time: 9 Nov, 2018 15:32
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/443559-s300-israel-attack-syria/

The Israeli Air Force reportedly hasn't conducted a single air mission in Syria after Russian S-300 systems were delivered to the Arab Republic. How may the situation develop further?

Israel has not carried out a single military operation in Syria on its own after September 17, when a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane was brought down by a Syrian missile by mistake, writes German Contra Magazine. The outlet linked this fact with the recent delivery of the formidable Russian S-300 systems to Syria.

Let's clarify Tel-Aviv's position first, though. There have been reports that the Israeli Air Force command pledged to conduct future air missions on the condition of obtaining a prior clearance with the Russian military.

But these reports are at odds with the statements made by Israeli politicians, who denied Russia's request for timely notifications of Israeli Air Force operations in Syria. Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "We will not accept any restrictions on our freedom of operation."

At present, all Russia gets is a few minutes' notice before Israel delivers an air strike on targets in Syria.

High-ranking Israeli military officials justify this by saying that if they were to inform Russia in advance, it could result in information leaks, which, in turn, would give the Syrian air defense and pro-Iran armed groups the time to prepare for an incoming attack. In October, Lieberman said that "in all the matters that concern our security interests, Israel cannot afford to make any compromises."

Now, let us look at the reasoning behind Israel's attacks in Syria. According to Tel Aviv, Israel only launches airstrikes against Iranian militant groups that allegedly supply missiles to terrorist organizations who use the weapons to kill Israeli civilians. In addition, Israeli air forces carry out missions to prevent Iran from delivering weapons to Hezbollah. Tel Aviv considers the actions undertaken by Tehran in Syria as one of the biggest threats to Israel's national security.

This leads to the only possible conclusion: the airstrikes will likely continue, regardless of whether there are any S-300 air defense weapons systems on the ground in Syria or not.

Now, let us look at the combat capabilities of the S-300 missile system (also known as 'Favorite') deployed in the Syrian Arab Republic. There are reasons to believe that there is a set of S-300PM-2 air defense missile battalions currently operational in Syria, consisting of a command-and-control vehicle, a radar detection vehicle and two air defense missile battalions.

The exact number of launcher vehicles in each of the battalions is unknown, but we can safely assume that their number is limited. In any case, the battalions deployed in Syria are not equipped to full strength, which would be 12 launcher vehicles per battalion.

The essential point is that all units of the S-300PM-2 air defense missile battalion are manned by Russian personnel. It will take at least three months to train Syrian crews to operate the system, and so far these pieces of military hardware have not been handed over to be under the command of the Syrian Air Defense Forces.

It seems imperative to give a brief description of the combat capabilities of the system. In mass media, they often say that the S-300 currently has a max range of 250km (155 miles). That means that two battalions of this system can effectively cover nearly half of Syria.

In principle, it is possible. However a bit of clarification is certainly necessary. Effective engagement range of any air defense missile system depends on the altitude of a target, which is explained by the basic laws of the radio-wave propagation and the fact that the Earth is not flat.

For example, the max range for the S-300PM-2 is indeed 250km, but it will only be able to intercept a target that far if it flies at an altitude of around 12 to 15km (7 to 10 miles). In modern military context, combat aviation rarely operates at such a high altitude. So, if the target travels at about 100m (328 feet) then the engagement range of the S-300 system drops to 25km, and it may get even worse – complex landscape configuration can cut it down to 14-16km.

The key idea here is that one single set of S-300 air defense missile battalions at no point should be seen as a silver-bullet that will enable Syria to shoot down practically any incoming threat.

It should be noted though that even most advanced weapons turn into a pile of metal scrap when handled by ill-trained and unqualified crews.

The S-300 missile systems can only be effective if they are used as elements of a modern missile defense system, which includes a layered anti-aircraft system, fighter jets to provide air cover, a surveillance radar system and electronic warfare components. What is even more important, all those systems need to be operated by highly qualified and motivated personnel.

So, for the Syrian army to be able to fight the Israeli Defense Forces on equal terms, it has to be trained to reach the combat readiness and fighting efficiency of the Israeli military.

It is debatable whether that is at all possible. Even if it is theoretically possible as far as weaponry and military equipment are concerned, trained and motivated crews are a must, and Bashar al-Assad has no military personnel that can meet this criteria right away.

At the moment, one possible scenario is that the Israeli Air Force will continue its airstrikes on Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria and the presence of the S-300 systems is unlikely to stop that.

Let's also not forget that Israel will see operational S-300 air defense systems as a national security threat. However it's unlikely that Israel will try and destroy these missile systems – at least as long as the S-300 'Favorite' is operated by the Russian military.

By Mikhail Khodarenok, military commentator for Gazeta.ru

Bio:

Mikhail Khodarenok is a retired colonel. He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering School of Anti-Aircraft Missile Defense (1976) and the Command Academy of the Air Defense Forces (1986).
Commanding officer of the S-75 AA missile battalion (1980-1983).
Deputy commanding officer of a SAM regiment (1986-1988).
Senior officer at the High Command of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Officer at the main operational directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces(1992–2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (1998).
Worked as an analyst at Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003) and editor-in-chief of Voyenno-Promyshlennyi Kuriyer (2010-2015).

オーストラリアの元外相が、情報筋から仕入れた話として明かした。ムスリム同胞団のメンバーであるカショギ氏は、CIAの指示、カタールのカネで、サウジ国内に同胞団の思想を広める団体を、トルコに設立しようとしていた。同胞団を毛嫌いしているサウジのMBS皇太子は、カショギ氏に対し9月に900万ドルの提供を申し出たが、氏は拒否し、そして10月に殺害された。

簡単に言うと、サウジに内乱を起こそうとする米国の企画に対し、サウジMBS皇太子がカショギ氏殺害という形で回答した。MBS皇太子は、米国の作戦を阻止した。

トランプは、ディープ・ステートから相変わらず排除されているのか、脳天気なだけなのか、米国・サウジ関係に荒波を立ててはいけないというスタンスを取り続けている。

MBS皇太子が政策上の要となっているイスラエルも、サウジの内政混乱を望んでおらず、静かに事態が収束することをトランプ大統領に強く要望した。
（ネタンヤフの声は「天の声」いくつか：その1、その2、その3）

今回オーストラリアからリークされた情報を、米英の情報機関が知らないはずがない。情報を事前に察知していた米英が、MBS皇太子の行為を指をくわえてみていたはずがないのである。

ということであれば、サウジ内乱を計画しているCIAが、カショギ氏が殺害されたくらいで作戦を諦めるとは考えにくい。サウジの内政混乱は続くであろう。

以下英文記事の1本目はインドのベテラン外交官による解説。2本目はラリア元外相執筆の投稿。

・・・ということですから、新中東地図に描かれた「サウジ分裂作戦」を、私たちはこれから目撃することになるようです。ワクワクしてきました。
関連記事

こういうのを見ると、2018年に安倍政権が安泰なのは、安倍さんが政治家として優秀だからとか、日本の官僚機構がしっかりしているからという理由ではなく、「単に米国が安部首相を暗殺しないから」というだけの理由であることが、よくわかります。

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Saudi Regime Survives but Enters the Time of Troubles
Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR | 06.11.2018
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/11/06/saudi-regime-survives-but-enters-time-troubles.html

In a sensational disclosure quoting “intelligence sources”, former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wrote in the Financial Review newspaper on Sunday that the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was murdered on October 2 in Turkey was far from a “bleeding heart liberal” but was a seasoned intelligence agent and a sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood working on regime change in his country.

Downer wrote: “To add to the complexity of the story, the Brotherhood is supported by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Qataris… So Jamal Khashoggi – a former Saudi intelligence agent, a man who was close to the Muslim Brotherhood and a sworn opponent of (Saudi Crown Prince) MBS' reform program – was in the process of setting up a centre to promote the ideology of the MB. He was setting it up in Turkey with Qatari money. The Saudis wanted to stop him. In September they offered him $9 million to return to Saudi Arabia and to live there unhindered. They wanted him out of play. Khashoggi refused and the rest you know. The Saudis killed him.”

What has been so far in the realm of intuitive deduction now becomes actual fact. Downer’s disclosure completely transforms the narrative about Khashoggi’s death and it is bound to be hugely consequential.

Assuming that Downer’s “intelligence sources” were Australian, it must be factored in that Australia is a member of the highly privileged 5-nation intelligence alliance, Five Eyes, alongside the US, Canada, UK and New Zealand. The Five Eyes agencies are obliged to share by default all intelligence, including raw intelligence (and even techniques related to the acquisition of such intelligence.)

Suffice to say, it’s out of the question that the intelligence on the Muslim Brotherhood project for regime change in Saudi Arabia involving Khashoggi, Turkey and Qatar was not available with the CIA and MI6 as well. Saudi Arabia is a key ally of the US and yet, are we to believe that the CIA and the MI6 simply sat on such sensitive intelligence?

That is to say, a tantalizing proposition pops up: The CIA and MI6 were covertly backing Khashoggi’s project to change the regime in Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, it is obvious that the American media commentators who are known to have close links with the US intelligence establishment went ballistic no sooner that it transpired by the evening of October 2 that Khashoggi who walked into the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier in the day had failed to come out of the compound.

The hysteria whipped up over the incident right from Day 1 in such a sustained fashion is unprecedented. The Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal – son of a former king and cousin of the crown prince, a former Saudi intelligence chief and ambassador to both the US and Britain, as well as a once-close associate of Khashoggi’s – asked recently with indignation why there should have been such brouhaha at all.

Turki said with biting sarcasm that “people in glass houses should not cast stones. Countries that have tortured and incarcerated innocent people” and “launched a war that killed many thousands . . . based on fabricated information, should be humble in their regard to others,” he said, in a clear reference to US counterterrorism policy and the invasion of Iraq.

The bottom line is that the explosive anger and fury of the “Deep State” in America over the death of Khashoggi can only be understood with Downer’s intelligence input – namely, that Khashoggi was a priceless “asset” of the US intelligence establishment and the Saudis simply eliminated him.

Now, if the “Deep State” was promoting Khashoggi, President Donald Trump was either unaware of it or was deliberately kept in the dark. The point is, Trump seems to be in splendid isolation even today in his aversion to punishing the Saudi regime for Khashoggi’s murder.

Trump is openly evasive although Turkish President Erdogan even penned an op-Ed in the Washington Post newspaper in the weekend alleging that Saudi leadership “at the highest levels” was involved in Khashoggi’s murder.

Of course, this is not the first time in US political history that the “Deep State” would have acted behind the back of an incumbent president. But then, Trump is different from Dwight Eisenhower or John Kennedy. And he staunchly believes that nothing should be done to destabilize Saudi Arabia.

Under the circumstances, Downer’s intelligence input will work just fine for Trump if he wants to shake off the pressure from the “Deep State” which has been attempting to force his hands against the Saudi regime.

Coupled with the fact that Israeli lobby has also waded into the Khashoggi affair arguing against any US moves against the Israel-friendly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the odds are heavily favoring Trump’s policy of “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” against the Saudi regime.

However, the US intelligence establishment is smarting from the humiliation meted out by the Saudi regime and is unlikely to retreat in embarrassment. The high probability is that it will wage war by other means – until Islamic democracy prevails in Saudi Arbia.

Bruce Riedel, a Middle East expert at the Brookings Institution, who served for three decades in the CIA, told the New Yorker magazine last week: “There is no political way out (over Khashoggi affair), except through violence.” It is an ominous remark by an ace intelligence operative of yesteryears who knows Saudi Arabia like the back of his hand.

The New Yorker report by Dexter Filkins, a Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed author with long experience in reporting from the frontlines of Middle Eastern hotspots, concludes: “Even if—especially if—M.B.S. hangs on to his position, it seems likely that the Saudi royal family, and Saudi Arabia more generally, are entering a dangerous period.”

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Jamal Khashoggi was a player, not a bleeding heart liberal: Alexander Downer
Opinion
Nov 4 2018 at 11:45 PM
Updated Nov 4 2018 at 11:45 PM
https://www.afr.com/opinion/columnists/jamal-khashoggi-was-a-player-not-a-bleeding-heart-liberal-alexander-downer-20181104-h17h9k

I was at a dinner last week with the new British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. Hunt was telling us of his recent meeting with Henry Kissinger. He had asked that doyen of diplomacy what separated the good foreign ministers from the ordinary. "Good foreign ministers have an understanding of strategy," the great man growled. Indeed.

The temptation foreign ministers must avoid is to lose sight of strategy as they react to day to day events, often driven by the ephemeral excitement of the media. Well, the West's media is in overdrive over the murder by the Saudis of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul. There's a demand the West should turn its collective back on Saudi Arabia in response to this criminal act.

I'm not defending what the Saudis did. It was clearly unacceptable. Murder always is. But what is it about Saudi Arabia we have learned in the last month that we didn't already know? It's a tough autocracy, the home of Wahhabism, the hardline sect of Islam which harks back to the values and practices of the middle ages. Its political and economic system is run by an eye-wateringly rich royal family who spray their wealth around Mayfair and Fifth Avenue, if not entirely at home.

And Saudi Arabia is hardly a model of economic efficiency. It has the same population of Australia, produces about 12 per cent of the world's oil and has a GDP not much more than a third of Australia's.

My own experiences of Saudi Arabia have not been entirely happy. As foreign minister I expelled a senior Saudi diplomat because he had been allegedly imprisoning and raping his Filipina maid. The next time I visited Riyadh as foreign minister my reception was distinctly chilly. I sat in the hotel room for hours waiting for meetings which never happened. But I didn't ever publicise the expulsion of the Saudi diplomat because I knew two things. First, raping anyone was a serious criminal offence and since a diplomat couldn't be prosecuted I did the next best thing: expel him.
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But I also knew Saudi Arabia was strategically important. It was and still is a partner of convenience for the West. It's not about oil. The Saudis have to export oil to survive. And it's not about arms sales. It's about maintaining a power balance in the Middle East and in particular in the Persian Gulf.

There's no doubting the aggression and ambitions of the Iranian theocracy. They've been pushing their influence from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean. They fund and arm Hezbollah and Hamas, deeply divisive and confrontational organisations. They have actively supported the attempted Houthi takeover of Yemen and Iran is deeply engaged in cyberwarfare.

In this febrile environment, Saudi Arabia is the ally of the West. Abandoning the relationship with Saudi Arabia would further weaken the interests and influence of the Western powers in the Middle East. And if you think that doesn't matter you're quite wrong. The Middle East is volatile enough without adding to that volatility by creating new power vacuums.

So back to the tragic murder of Jamal Khashoggi. My intelligence sources tell me he had worked as an intelligence agent for the Saudi intelligence service, GID, for around 20 years. At one point he was sent by GID to Sudan to meet Osama bin Laden and to try to lure him away from terrorism. He failed.

Khashoggi had always been close to the Muslim Brotherhood, the people who took over Egypt under Morsi following the so-called Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood is a hard-line Islamist organisation dedicated to the introduction of Sharia and the creation of an Islamic caliphate. These people are no bleeding heart liberals. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation in a number of Middle Eastern countries and is part of the Hamas support group. They have been implacably opposed to many of the more liberal reforms of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

To add to the complexity of the story, the Brotherhood is supported by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Qataris. This is a source of real tension between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and their regional allies on the one side and the Turks and Qataris on the other.

So Jamal Khashoggi – a former Saudi intelligence agent, a man who was close to the Muslim Brotherhood and a sworn opponent of MBS' reform program– was in the process of setting up a centre to promote the ideology of the MB. He was setting it up in Turkey with Qatari money. The Saudis wanted to stop him. In September they offered him $9 million to return to Saudi Arabia and to live there unhindered. They wanted him out of play. Khashoggi refused and the rest you know. The Saudis killed him.

Let me make two points. First, there is no justification for murdering Khashoggi. Secondly, this man wasn't some Western-oriented liberal brutally murdered because of his passion for freedom. This man was a player.

So it makes you wonder why the American press is so particularly outraged by Khashoggi's murder. Well, he was a columnist for the Washington Post and it's a standard bearer of American liberalism. But it's also been a great propaganda coup against Saudi Arabia in general. Many Westerners blame the Saudis for the tragedy of Yemen. More than that. President Trump has made a great play of embracing Saudi Arabia as America's ally – much more so than Obama who instead, against Saudi objections, did the nuclear deal with Iran. As for Erdogan, it's absolutely in his interests to milk the Khashoggi murder in Turkey for all it's worth. Erdogen wants Turkey to replace Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Islamic world.

You see my point. You can in government be swept up in the prevailing media narrative and if you design your foreign policy on that basis you will achieve nothing. The wise government is the government which has a clear strategic direction and manages ephemeral events often driven by others with ulterior motives.

Alexander Downer was foreign minister from 1996 to 2007 and is a former high commissioner to the UK.

In Huge Shift, UAE To Reopen Embassy In Damascus As Gulf Rapprochement With Assad Likely
Thu, 11/08/2018 - 01:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-07/huge-shift-uae-reopen-embassy-damascus-gulf-rapprochement-assad-likely

関連記事

記事の書きぶりは、日本側は、日韓の政府関係の法的外形、日本企業と原告の法的外形についてだけ着目し、法的外形が損害賠償の対象になり得ないので請求却下ですという、論理的ではあるが、冷たく感じさせる説明に仕上がっている。

それに対し、韓国側の主張については、1990年代初期の慰安婦問題のときにそうであったように、用語を巧妙に操作する手法で、読者の感情に訴えるように加工してある。

原告は、本人の自由意志で企業の求人広告に応募してきた人なのに、「強制労働させられ、事実上の囚人であった」と書いてある。徴用でも強制労働でもないのだから、徴用工ではないときちんと指摘する必要あり。

きちんと給料を受け取っていたはずなのに、受け取っていないという発言をそのまま掲載している。

証明されていないお涙ちょうだいの話が満載。

韓国は併合された領土だったのに、安直に植民地と書いてある。

エンジニアになる夢を果たせなかったのは、日本でひどい目にあった体験がトラウマになったからとまで主張。言いたい放題。

米英仏露中の新聞が、戦前の日本について、日本側の反論を書くはずがないので、もし日本政府が本気で韓国とやり合うのであれば、韓国側の主張に含まれる嘘について、詳細に英語で説明する文章を、外務省HPや、英語版が世界で広く読まれている読売新聞に掲載するくらいのことをしなければ対抗できないんじゃないですか？

今のままだったら、慰安婦問題と同様に、「日本が悪い」という国際世論が形成されますよ。

---

South Korea Warns Japan in Row Over Wartime Forced Labour
By Reuters
Nov. 7, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/11/07/world/asia/07reuters-southkorea-japan-laborers.html

'I still feel sad and cry': Korean victim of Japanese forced labour awaits justice
Benjamin Haas in Gwangju, South Korea and Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Wed 7 Nov 2018 03.32 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/07/i-still-feel-sad-and-cry-korean-victim-of-japanese-forced-labour-awaits-closure

シリア領空におけるパワー・バランスが変わった。

関連記事

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Israeli Air Force Shuns Attacks in Syria Since S-300 Delivery – Lawmaker
15:02 05.11.2018(updated 20:09 05.11.2018)
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201811051069517161-syria-no-israeli-attacks-s300-delivery/

Russia has delivered 49 units of its sophisticated S-300 long-range surface-to-air missile systems to Syria in wake of the accidental destruction of a Russian Il-20 plane by Syrian air defenses responding to an Israeli attack.

Ksenia Svetlova, who sits on the Israeli parliament’s defense committee has confirmed that Israeli warplanes had not approached Syria’s airspace since Russia supplied it with S-300 missile systems.

"There hasn’t been a single mission since Syria received S-300s. The S-300 has changed the balance of power in the region," she told reporters.

The statement confirmed the Al-Masdar News report, citing an unnamed military source in Damascus, saying that the Israeli Air Force (IAF) hasn’t attacked Syria since Russia delivered the S-300 air defense system to the Syrian government forces.

The source claimed that the IAF hadn’t violated Syria’s airspace from either the disputed Golan Heights or Lebanon, although it has flown close to the border.

German Media Questions Israeli Claim on New Strikes in Syria Post S-300 Delivery

The military insider also denied an anonymous Israeli official’s claim, reported by Reuters, that Tel Aviv had carried out attacks after the downing of the Russian warplane on September 17.

The source further told Al-Masdar news that the Russian military was still training the Syrian air defense units to use the S-300s in the provinces of Latakia and Hama.

On October 29, Reuters cited a senior Israeli official as saying that the IDF had attacked Syria, “including after the downing of the Russian plane,” while Israel’s Channel 1 reported that one of the strikes had targeted an alleged Iranian shipment of equipment destined for Hezbollah.

The delivery of 49 units of S-300s was completed in early October after the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it would supply Syria with air defense systems to improve the security of Russian troops stationed there.

The decision was made in the aftermath of the inadvertent destruction of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft by Syrian air defenses repelling an Israeli air strike.

The Russian military has blamed the wreckage on Tel Aviv, emphasizing that an Israeli fighter jet had used the Russian plane as a shield against Syrian air defense systems. Israel has dismissed the accusations, claiming that it had warned Moscow about the upcoming air raid in the area in advance.

Image of Bolsanaro’s sons wearing pro-IDF & Mossad shirts goes viral
Published time: 6 Nov, 2018 14:18
https://www.rt.com/news/443215-bolsonaro-sons-idf-mossad-tshirt/

A photograph of Brazilian president-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s sons sporting IDF and Mossad t-shirts has gone viral. RT set out to verify the image and find out the story behind it.

The photograph, showing Eduardo and Carlos Bolsonaro walking in Israel, is getting attention on social media in the wake of right-wing Bolsonaro’s election win. The siblings are pictured donning t-shirts advertising Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, and the Israel Defense Forces.

This is a photo of Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro’s two sons wearing IDF and Mossad shirts. Israel has become a symbol for authoritarianism around the world https://t.co/QgRTyRafBr
— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) November 4, 2018

The image has circulated on social media and message boards. A search on forums like 4Chan and reverse image searches revealed the earliest available version of the image online, which came from Eduardo himself.

Eduardo, who is a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies and a member of his father’s far-right Social Liberal Party, posted the image to Twitter back in May 2016, when he was in Israel with his family. “A first world country that values its armed forces and police,” he wrote at the time.

País de 1º mundo valoriza suas FFAA e polícias. Mtos chegam a estampar camisas para turistas - com @CarlosBolsonaropic.twitter.com/wHJOJNOddv
— Eduardo Bolsonaro 17 (@BolsonaroSP) May 13, 2016

Eduardo also tagged his brother Carlos, a member of Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Chamber and part of the right-wing Social Christian Party, in the tweet. The pair have a third brother, Flavio, who also attended the trip. The three are Bolsonaro’s sons from his first of three marriages.

Shalom! 🇮🇱🇧🇷 - com @FlavioBolsonaro e @CarlosBolsonaro . pic.twitter.com/EUIfDloQNX
— Eduardo Bolsonaro 17 (@BolsonaroSP) May 6, 2016

The Israel trip saw members of the Bolsonaro family tour the country and visit members of the Knesset. Catholic Jair and his sons were even baptized by an evangelical pastor in the River Jordan. Brazil’s evangelical voters make up one quarter of the electorate.

This isn’t Eduardo's first foray into displaying military support on his chest. He caused a stir earlier this year when he wore a t-shirt with the face of Brazilian military intelligence officer Colonel Brilhante Ustra, accused of torture under the country’s military dictatorship of the 1960s-1980s.

In May, Eduardo posted a controversial cartoon which claimed to show the difference between Israelis and Palestinians. It depicted an Israeli soldier protecting a woman and child, while a Palestinian fighter hides behind a woman.

É isso que imagino quando criticam Israel. Só pessoas mal informadas, que não sabem o que se passa por lá acham que Israel é um povo assassino. Se Israel quisesse já teria conquistado toda a região, veja o que foi a guerra dos Seis Dias. Falando de Brasil agora: Lula se negou a colocar flores no memorial do holocausto, mas colocou no túmulo do líder palestino Yasser Arafat; Lula doou R$ 25mi para "reconstruir" Gaza mas que sabemos vão para armas do Hamas; Dilma se negou a aceitar as credenciais do embaixador israelense que Israel indicou para o Brasil, por isso fomos justamente chamados de anões diplomáticos. Vamos mudar nossas relações internacionais e resgatar nosso respeito.

A post shared by Eduardo Bolsonaro 1720 (@bolsonarosp) on May 24, 2018 at 3:52am PDT

Eduardo also re-shared a post by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the day of the US embassy opening in Jerusalem, writing, “Next year will be Brazil’s turn."

His father said he would be open to moving Brazil’s embassy to Jerusalem, following the US’s relocation decision last year. The president-elect has made his support for Israel clear, claiming in 2017 his heart is “green, yellow, blue and white,” in reference to Brazil and Israel’s flags.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro’s eldest son Flavio is currently planning a trip to Israel to buy some of its military drones and to check out its facial recognition equipment that can be installed on public transport, Renova Media reports.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjKFMAdniav/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading

Família Bolsonaro em Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j36ooYrskaU&feature=youtu.be

アサド大統領がクウェート紙とのインタビューで明かした。

---

Assad: 'Understanding' reached with Arab states

In his first interview with Gulf paper since 2011, Syrian president says as soon as civil war is over, Damascus will resume its pivotal role in the region and restore its ties with Arab states; Assad: Arab and Western delegations already begun visiting Syria to prepare for reopening of diplomatic missions.

Associated Press |Published: 10.03.18 , 21:01
https://www.ynetnews.com/home/0,7340,L-9733,00.html

Syrian President Bashar Assad told Kuwaiti newspaper Wednesday that Syria has reached a "major understanding" with Arab states after years of hostility over the country's civil war.

The interview in the little-known Al-Shahed newspaper was Assad's first with a Gulf newspaper since the war began in 2011.

Assad doesn't name the Arab countries but says Arab and Western delegations have begun visiting Syria to prepare for the reopening of diplomatic and other missions. Soon the civil war will be over, Assad told the paper's publisher, allowing Syria to resume its pivotal role in the region.

Syria's membership in the 22-member Arab League was suspended in the early days of the war and Arab countries later imposed economic sanctions after they failed to mediate an end to the war.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have openly supported opposition groups fighting to overthrow Assad since. Kuwait hosted a number of donors' conferences for aid to Syrians, but it also condemned violence blamed on the Syrian government.

On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the Syrian foreign minister and his Bahraini counterpart held a warm meeting which turned heads because it featured hugs between the two ministers.

The encounter raised questions about whether the Gulf countries, most of them sworn enemies of Assad's ally Iran, are reconsidering their relations with Damascus as the war winds down.

Assad, embattled for years, is emerging largely victorious after strong support from Russia and Iran. He now controls over 60 percent of Syria with strong Russian and pro-Iranian military support.

Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the Bahraini foreign minister, later told Saudi-run Al-Arabiya TV that it was not the first meeting with "my brother" the Syrian minister. But he said it was an unplanned meeting, while other planned ones weren't caught on camera.

Al Khalifa said the meeting came at a time of serious Arab efforts to "reclaim" a role in resolving the Syrian crisis.

"This meeting comes at this period that is witnessing positive transformations toward having an effective Arab role in the Syrian issue," Al Khalifa said in the Sunday interview with Al-Arabiya.

"Syria is an Arab country. Its people are Arabs and what happens there concerns us before any other nation. It is not correct that regional and international countries are looking into the Syrian issue and not us."

Al Khalifa seemed to recognize that the Syrian government is here to stay. "The Syrian government is the Syrian government. We work with states— even if we disagree with them—and not with those who bring down those states," he said.

Assad praises Kuwait's position regarding Syria in the interview with Al-Shahed, calling its leader "a problem solver."

Al-Shahed's editor in chief is one of the many members of the extended Kuwaiti royal family. The paper had been temporarily shut down twice in 2010, and 2014 for insulting the judiciary and the public prosecutor and for publishing false news. Its editor in chief was sentenced to three months in 2010.

まあ、サウジも歓迎ではあるのだが、メディアを概観する限り、大はしゃぎしている様子は見受けられない。大体どこの国も基本線として米国の政策を迷惑だと思っている中、明確に歓迎を表明したのはイスラエルだけ。

「米国が対イラン制裁を実施した」のは外形を表現しているに過ぎず、実態としては、イスラエルがイランを嫌っていることが示されているのでありました。

（追記）
米国の制裁6ヶ月免除が適用されたのは、日本、韓国、インド、中国、台湾、イタリア、ギリシア、トルコの8カ国で、他のEU加盟諸国は免除されなかった。米国によるイランいじめではあるのだが、「EUいじめ」がさりげなく盛り込まれた政策発表となった。もちろん、具体的にはドイツが標的である。

1990年代は日本叩きが繰り返され、日本政府と企業は対応に苦慮したが、なすすべがなく、ひたすら耐えるほかなかった。今しばらくEU受難が続きそうで、お気の毒。

米国は、低品質・高価格の米国産シェールガスを何としてもEUに買わせたいので、あの手この手で必死になっている。

（追記）
ちなみにYahoo!ニュースでの読者アンケートでは、72.9％が反対。
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/polls/domestic/36703/result

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Netanyahu congratulates Trump for reimposing sanctions against Iran
AFP|Published: 11.04.18 , 00:28
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5388052,00.html

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that restoring the economic sanctions against Iran, is a "historic" move made by US President Donald Trump.

"Thank you President Trump for this historic initiative, the sanctions are really coming," said Netanyahu in a statement.

"For years now, I have called for sanctions to be fully imposed against the deadly and murderous Iranian regime that threatens the entire world," he added.

"The effects of the initial sanctions (imposed by Washington) are already being felt, the rial is weakening, the Iranian economy is slumping and the results are obvious," he concluded.

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Netanyahu says Trump made courageous decision on US sanctions on Iran
Reuters|Published: 11.05.18 , 15:17
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5389651,00.html

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed on Monday what he called US President Donald Trump's courageous decision in reimposing US sanctions on Iran.


"This day is an historic day," Netanyahu said in public remarks to legislators from his Likud party. "I would like to again thank US President Donald Trump for the courageous, determined and important decision. I think this contributes to stability and security and peace."

Russia, India & Iran want to create alternative trade route to Suez Canal – report
1 Nov, 2018 11:03
https://www.rt.com/business/442832-india-iran-russia-suez-alternative/

久々に民団のHPを覗いてみたら、冒頭に以下の動画へのリンクが張ってあった。ちょうど1年ほど前にアップされた動画だ。

民団は同胞とともに大韓民国とともに（日本語版）
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d2M_D-F5Ys

「日本の地域社会との友好親善関係」がごっそり抜けているあたり、さすが韓国政府から毎年10億円単位の活動資金を注入されている外国政府直轄型の元・不法移民政治団体だけある。

もっとも、「日本の地域社会との友好親善関係」に触れようとしても、そのような事例が一つも存在しないので、盛り込みようがないですよね（爆）。

政府が主導している多文化共生策なんて、日本側からの片思いに過ぎないという事例が一つ見つかりました。友好親善なんて、根拠のない日本側の勝手な妄想。相手は私たちを「敵対関係」「上下関係」で見ている。

さあ、私たちが、すぐ隣に住んでいる彼らとどのような関係を構築すべきか、各家庭でよく話し合っておきましょう。

韓国が困るようなことを日本は絶対にしてはならないという方針で運営してきた日韓議連。「びっくりした」という他人事のコメントを発表するあたり、さすがブレません。日本が直面している問題なんですけどね。日韓議連が言うところの「日韓の共通認識」とは、ずっと「韓国の認識」だった。

同友会の「筋が通らないことには一円も払ってはならない」というコメントも、インパクトがない。

慰安婦問題では、日本側は筋の通らないカネを何度も提供してきた。一番最近支払った10億円についても、当初はもっと低かった金額を、交渉の最終局面で10億円にまで引き上げたのに、いつものことながら、カネは目的外に浪費されてしまうし、設立したばかりの財団は韓国側の都合で勝手に解散されることとなり、日本は事後報告を受けた。

既存の外交文書における合意事項を、韓国の希望に沿って日本側が修正し、新たな便宜供与やカネを与えるという逸脱行為は、在日の地位協定や慰安婦問題で幾度となく繰り返した前例がある。徴用工については、法的取り決めの詳細が異なるとはいえ、中国国内においては日本企業は賠償金を支払った。

日韓ではない第三国に仲裁を依頼したら、日本がもう一度我慢すれば済む問題だと結論付けるかもしれない。第三国は日本に味方する、韓国は非難されるに決まってるなどと安直に期待してはならない。

あちらさん（韓国側）は、南北統一という大きな潮流の前に、慰安婦問題、徴用工問題といった個別の事案は小さな問題に過ぎず、韓国がここで押せば、必ず日本は流される運命にあり、従ってその主張を通すことはできないと信じて実行している。

このダメダメ日韓関係のシナリオを描き、過去50年以上も実行してきた外交当局の責任者がいそうなものだが、責任を問う声が出てこないのが、まず不思議。

一般の日本国民の個人レベルとしては、地域社会、学校、職場にいる、特別永住ビザの在日韓国人および通常ビザで入国した韓国人との関係が、現状のままでいいのかどうか、真剣に考えなければならないだろう。いろんな考え方がありうるが、外交関係の変質に応じて、個人レベルでの付き合い方も変えるというのが自然の帰結であろう。日本の地方自治体が、こんな国の地方自治体と姉妹都市協定を結び、のんきに友好イベントを開催していていいのかという疑問も沸いてくる。

韓国軍が持つ巡航ミサイルと北の核を組み合わせれば、統一朝鮮は東京を核攻撃することができる。その巡航ミサイルをパトリオットで撃ち落とせば、韓国と東京の間にあるどこかの町に、核物質が降り注ぐだけのこと。身近な韓国人が敵性市民、敵性外国人になりうるシナリオは、「政府と国民は別」などというきれい事で済ますことのできる問題ではない。多文化共生して日本が滅ぶ、が現実のものとなる。

こんなときに、韓国政府は国内の若年失業者を厚かましくも対日輸出する政策を鋭意実行中だし、日本政府は移民受け入れ拡大を決めた。大丈夫なんでしょうか、この国。

（追記）
11月5日朝の保守系ラジオ番組（ニッポン放送のcozyというヤツ）を聴いていたら、この日の解説者が、日本側の反発とその理屈を一通り説明し、韓国側の理由付けについても日本の保守派が喜ぶような形で批判したあと、番組の最後を、「これを解決するためには、慰安婦問題でしたように、韓国側が設立する被害者を救済する基金に、日本政府と関係する企業も資金を拠出する必要があると思います」で締めくくった。

「ほら、やっぱりね」と思った。

条約を自ら破り、上限も期限もなしに、追加のカネを支払い続ける結論ならば、敢えて韓国を批判する必要はない。日本は、馬鹿な専門家ばかり。

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徴用工判決「びっくりした」…日韓議連の額賀氏
読売
11/2(金) 22:04配信
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181102-00050107-yom-pol

　超党派の国会議員でつくる「日韓議員連盟」は２日、韓国大法院（最高裁）が新日鉄住金に韓国人元徴用工への賠償を命じる判決を確定させたことを受け、緊急会合を開いた。元徴用工の請求権問題は１９６５年の日韓請求権・経済協力協定で解決済みだとして、韓国政府に適切な対応を求める意見が相次いだ。

　議連会長を務める自民党の額賀福志郎・元財務相は冒頭、「はっきり言って（判決確定に）びっくりした。（問題は解決済みだとする）日本側の立場について共通認識を持つようにしたい」と語った。

　出席者からは「日本政府が協定に基づき支払った経済協力金に個人の請求権も含むということで韓国政府も納得していたはずだ」「協定で問題が解決済みということをどれだけの韓国人が理解しているのか」などと、韓国側の対応を疑問視する意見が出た。未来志向の関係をつくるため、韓国側と解決策を話し合うべきだとする意見もあった。

　議連は１２月、韓国側の「韓日議員連盟」と現地で合同総会を開き、判決確定が日韓関係を悪化させないよう対応策を話し合う方針だ。

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日韓に負の効果、１円も払うな…同友会代表幹事
読売
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/economy/20181102-OYT1T50015.html

　経済同友会の小林喜光代表幹事は１日の記者会見で、韓国大法院（最高裁）が新日鉄住金に韓国人元徴用工への賠償を命じる判決を確定させたことについて、「筋が通らないことには一円も払ってはならない。他（の被告企業など）にも迷惑をかける」と指摘した。

　小林氏は「今のままでは日韓関係、特に経済で負の効果を間違いなくもたらすと思う」とし、「韓国は分かりづらい（国）ということではないか」と批判した。

日本の保守派は、ウイグル人のことを、残虐な中国共産党政権に人権抑圧されている可愛そうな少数民族というキャラと位置づけていて、日米が力を合わせ救済すべき対象として描いている。「中国共産党は大きく残虐で無慈悲なキャラ」で、「ウイグル人は小さく弱く可愛そうなキャラ」。

ところが安田さんの素朴で素直な観察によると、ウイグル人が不法に武装し、トルコからシリアに不法越境し、恫喝と殺害を繰り返して地元シリア人を追い出し、地元民が消えたあとの空き家を不法占領し、加えて安田さんを拘束していた。この事実が日本国民に広く知れ渡ると、対中国包囲網を構築するに必要な日本国内の世論形成にとり、実に都合の悪い情報になる。

ウイグル人がシリアで悪さをしていたことは、シリアを観察してきた人ならば誰でも常識として知っていることで、わざわざ安田さんから教わらなければならない知識ではないが、これが一般人に知られると、政策上マズいんですよ。

シリア程度の国でも、詳細な地誌の資料がアラビア語、トルコ語、フランス語、ドイツ語、英語等で存在するから、戦前のシリアに、ウイグル人の集落なんてなかったことなど、簡単に証明できる。シリア戦の文脈でごく最近不法に越境し、勝手に集落を作り、マフィア化して悪さを繰り返していたウイグル人がいた。この情報が広く報道された衝撃は大きい。

異国の地で、地元民と外国人を武力で威嚇、拘束、拷問していたということは、「ウイグル人は素行が悪く、切除すべき社会のガン細胞であり、中国共産党政権はやむなく取り締まっている」という結論になる。ウイグル人が悪で、中国共産党が善に逆転してしまった。

新華社や人民日報は、安田さんの証言を大きく取り上げるべきではないかな。なぜ、いないはずのウイグル人がシリアにいるのか？なぜ武装しているのか？などとやんわり皮肉を込めて書けばそれで十分です。

そうそう、シリアで悪さしていた外国人で目立って多いのがチュニジア人なのだけど、一般の日本人は、目の前にいるチュニジア人が、良いチュニジア人か、悪いチュニジア人か判断することができません。私たち日本人は、日本に在住するチュニジア人をどのように身元確認し、彼らとどのような関係を構築したらよろしいでしょうか。

（注：一応チュニジア人の名誉のために書いておくが、サウジやカタールが配るカネに引き寄せられたチュニジア人が、トルコ経由やヨルダン経由等でシリアに送り込まれた。チュニジア政府が主導しているわけではない。）

私たち一般の日本人からしたら、目の前にいる外国人本人およびその家族・親戚に、秘密の戦闘訓練を受け、紛争地域で戦闘に従事した経験がないことの証明がほしい。学校、職場、または賃貸マンション等に、そのような経歴を持つ人を受け入れたくないです。受け入れなければならない義務も筋合いもない。冗談じゃありません。誰か教えて下さい。頼みます。多文化共生なんてきれい事に、騙されるわけにはいきません。

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安田純平さん、一時「中国人」名乗る　拘束先にウイグル人→「韓国人のウマル」に
Jcast ニュース
11/2(金) 19:24配信
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181102-00000012-jct-soci

　シリアの武装組織による拘束から解放されたフリージャーナリスト・安田純平さんが2018年11月2日、日本記者クラブで会見を開き、3年以上にわたる拘束中の出来事を語った。武装組織によって7月にウェブ公開された動画で、「私の名前はウマルです。韓国人です」と、名前と国籍を偽った理由も話している。

　「ウマル」とはイスラム教徒に改宗したことで付けた名前というが、改宗しなければならなかった事情を述べ、また動画が撮影される以前は韓国人でなく「中国人と言っていた」時期もあることを明かしている。

■「運動したかった」

　監禁されていた3年4か月の間、安田さんはいくつかの収監施設を転々とさせられてきた。複数の囚人がいる施設にいたこともある。その中で武装組織側の考えについてこんな認識があった。

　　「報道されている日本人の人質であるということが施設内の他の囚人にバレると、他の囚人が出国した時に周囲に話すかもしれない。すると『インターネットやニュースで流れているあの人質があそこにいる』という情報が流れてしまうかもしれないので、周囲に対して私が日本人であるとか、私を特定できることは言ってはいけなかったと理解していた」

　ある施設で安田さんが監禁されていた部屋は約1メートル×2メートルという狭さだった。物音を立てると「1分以内くらいで、盗み聞きするために身動きしたのだろうという理屈で、拷問を始めたり電気を消したりされた」といい、わずかに体を動かすこともままならなかった。

　そこでハンガー・ストライキを始めた。1日2回の食事が提供されてきたが、「食事をとるとエネルギーになり、身動きしないときつくなってしまうので、もう食べないことにした」という。だが、それでも体を動かせないのは苦痛だった。これを解消するために申し出たのが、「イスラム教への改宗」だ。

　　「イスラム教徒になれば1日5回礼拝ができる。5回動ける。これまで1日2回、食事の時しか動けなかったが、イスラム教徒になることで5回追加できた。運動したかった」

　改宗によって付けたイスラムの名前が、7月公開の動画で名乗った「ウマル」だ。施設内でもこの名で呼ばれていたとしている。

　動画撮影時、「日付と名前と国籍、環境が悪い状態にあって助けてほしい、ということをすべて日本語で言え」と言われたという。だが、「なぜ日本語なんだと疑問だった。彼らは日本語がわからない。今までの動画は英語だった」ことから、このように考えたと明かした。

「施設を運営していたのはウイグル人だった」

　　「日本語で言わせるということは、彼らがわかる部分に注意しないといけないと解釈した。つまり名前だ。安田純平と言ってはダメだと思った。そこでウマルと言った」

　これが動画で名前を偽った理由のようだ。では、「韓国人」と言ったのはなぜなのか。それは監禁されていた施設の運営者と関係しているという。

　　「平屋のロの字型の施設だった。施設を運営していたのはウイグル人だった。彼らはトルキスタンと言っていた。そこにいた彼ら全員がウイグル人で、持ってくる食事も彼らが作るウイグル料理だった。ウイグル人コミュニティが周辺にあるのだろう」

　安田さんは、動画撮影で日本語を話すにあたって、名前に加えて「国籍も聞き取られるだろう」と考えた。国籍は、先述した安田さんを「特定」できる情報になり得るため、「日本人」と言うわけにはいかなかったようだ。実際「『ウマル』『韓国人』と言ったのは彼らに求められたものだった」という。

　　「彼らはウイグル人で中国出身だから、中国人と言わず韓国人と言えと言われた。前の施設では中国人と言っていたが、この施設では韓国人のウマルと言っていた。彼らに『日本語でそれを言えよ。お前は賢いからどういう意味かわかるよな』と言われ、『韓国人のウマルです』といったのがあの動画だ」

　安田さんはこの監禁施設について、「周囲にかなり大きなウイグル人のコミュニティがある所で、真南には山があり、ローマの遺跡がある場所だった。詳しい人なら特定できるかもしれない」と話していた。

MBS皇太子と対立関係にあり、現在海外亡命中の叔父が、米国とイギリスが提供する護衛を付けて、サウジに帰国した。王室関係者と接触し、自らが音頭を取るか、それをすることができる人物の選定を行う。例のMiddle East Eyeの情報。

どうやらMBS Must Go, Not Assad.キャンペーンが始まりそうな雰囲気です。サウジを内部から崩壊させ、ヨルダンのハーシム王家がヒジャーズに戻る日が近いかも。

イスラエルと米国は、何としてもイランを押さえ込みたいから、サウジの問題でいつまでもゴタゴタを続けるわけにはいかない。結構急展開して、ささっと片付けるのではないかと推察している。

今一番ワクワクしているのは、長いこと冷や飯を食わされてきたヨルダン国王かもです。故郷に戻れるし、領土は何倍増にも拡大する。

2本目は、同じ内容を、ペンタゴンの元分析官の話として紹介している。

3本目は、トルコ・サウジの検察協議が成果なし、というトルコ記事。

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Saudi Coup "Imminent" As Crown Prince's Uncle Arrives To Oust "Toxic" MbS
Wed, 10/31/2018
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-31/crown-princes-uncle-returns-saudi-arabia-oust-toxic-mbs

The youngest brother of Saudi Arabia's King Salman has returned from self-imposed exile to "challenge" Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) "or find someone who can," reports the Middle East Eye.
Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz

Prince Ahmad bin Abdulaziz is reportedly hoping to oust his 33-year-old nephew in the wake of an allegedly state-sanctioned murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. MbS has virtual control over Saudi Arabia after a June 2017 shakeup in which King Salman removed Muhammad bin Nayef as heir apparent.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

The septuagenarian prince, an open critic of bin Salman (MBS), has travelled with security guarantees given by US and UK officials.

“He and others in the family have realised that MBS has become toxic,” a Saudi source close to Prince Ahmad told Middle East Eye.

"The prince wants to play a role to make these changes, which means either he himself will play a major role in any new arrangement or to help to choose an alternative to MBS." -Middle East Eye

Prince Ahmad has reportedly been meeting with other members of the Saudi royal family living outside the kingdom, along with "figures inside the kingdom" who have encouraged him to usurp his nephew. According to MEE, "there are three senior princes who support Prince Ahmad's move," who remain unnamed to protect their security.

According to Saudi dissident Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al Saud, he expects a coup to be orchestrated against King Salman and MbS, as reported by the Middle East Monitor, which reports that a coup is "imminent."

"The coming period will witness a coup against the king and the crown prince," said Prince Khalid while commenting on the Khashoggi murder.

Khashoggi, a 59-year-old Washington Post journalist who had criticized the Crown Prince, was murdered on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork ahead of his upcoming wedding. His body has not been found, but is believed to have been dismembered after he was reportedly choked to death.

Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz, 76, has been living in the UK for several years after serving as Saudi Arabia's deputy minister of interior between 1975 - 2012, and briefly as minister of interior in 2012. Ahmed was seen as a potential candidate to succeed King Salman in the early 2000's, however he was sidelined in March 2014 amid one of several shakeups within the House of Saud.

On November 4, 2017 bin Salman began arresting as many as 500 Saudi princes, government ministers and businessmen - detaining them in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Private jets were grounded to prevent people from fleeing, while over 2,000 domestic bank accounts and other assets were frozen as the government targeted up to $800 billion in wealth that was reportedly "linked to corruption."

Prince Ahmad was protected from the purge, as MbS was unable to touch any sons of King Abdulaziz, founder of the modern Saudi state.

Standoff with Turkey

As MEE notes, Prince Ahmad's return comes amid a tense standoff between Saudi Arabia and Turkey following the Khashoggi murder. Turkish authorities have demanded to know what happened to the journalist's body and have requested audio of the execuiton rumored to exist.

In a thinly veiled attack on the crown prince, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday accused the Saudis of protecting the person responsible for the murder.

“A game to save somebody lies beneath this,” Erdogan told reporters following a speech in parliament on Tuesday. “We won’t leave Khashoggi’s murder behind.”

The Turkish president, who outlined some of the investigation into Khashoggi’s murder in an address last week, has promised to reveal more details about the killing but has so far refrained from doing so. -Middle East Eye

Despite Saudi chief prosecutor Saud al-Mojeb and Istanbul's chief prosecutor Ifran Fidan meeting twice over the last several days, no progress has been reported.
Saud al-Mojeb

The Saudis, meanwhile, continue to refuse Turkish investigators access to a well located at the home of the consul-general which lies 500 meters from the consulate.

So far 18 suspects have been arrested in the murder, 15 of whom were members of a death squad reportedly sent to kill Khashoggi. MbS, meanwhile, has denied any knowledge of the operation which reportedly included five members of his personal security detail - three of whom have accompanied the Crown Prince on high-profile trips to Washington, London and Paris.

Prince Ahmad's opposition to MbS

The exiled prince has challenged his nephew at least three times, according to MEE.

First, in the summer of 2017, when the king's brother was one of three members of the Allegiance Council, a body of senior royals tasked with choosing the succession, to oppose bin Salman’s appointment as crown prince.

Prince Ahmed pointedly did not give an oath of allegiance to his nephew when he was made King Salman's heir.

Second, when Prince Ahmad and King Salman’s brother, Abdelrahman bin Abdulaziz, died last year. Only two pictures were hung at the reception given by Prince Ahmad, that of King Abdulaziz and the current monarch. The crown prince’s portrait was notably missing.

Third, last month, when Prince Ahmad approached Yemeni and Bahraini protesters outside his London home who were calling the al-Sauds a criminal family.

The brother of Saudi Arabia's King Salman was heckled outside his residence in London.

So he confronted protesters telling them to blame King Salman and the Saudi Crown Prince instead pic.twitter.com/IzSY3tMs1Q
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 4, 2018

Ahmad told the hecklers that the Saudi royal family as a whole is not responsible for the war in Yemen - just the king and crown prince.

"They are responsible for crimes in Yemen. Tell Mohammed bin Salman to stop the war," Ahmad told them in Arabic.

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Khashoggi was ‘strangled, dismembered’ in Saudi consulate, Turkish prosecutor confirms
October 31 2018 17:10:00
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/khashoggi-was-strangulated-cut-into-pieces-in-saudi-consulate-turkish-prosecutor-confirms-138455

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office has said that Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled right after he entered the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, while also confirming earlier media reports that his body was “dismembered.”

In a written press statement on Oct. 31, the chief prosecutor’s office noted that talks with Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor Saud Al Mojeb “ended with no concrete results” and the Saudi authorities noted that they did not release any earlier statement pointing to a “local collaborator” who disposed Khashoggi’s body.

A senior Saudi official had told Reuters on Oct. 21 that the Saudi team rolled up Khashoggi’s body in a rug, took it out in a consular vehicle and handed it to a “local cooperator” for disposal.

Daily Hürriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi had written on Oct. 22 that the “hit squad” in the Saudi consulate “strangled” and the body was dismembered by a Saudi forensics expert.

Selvi also wrote on Oct. 31 that Turkish authorities shared with Mojeb some visual evidence in the case, but felt “uncomfortable” when the Saudi prosecutor insisted on getting a virtual copy of Khashoggi’s phone.

According to Selvi, Turkish officials were in “a deep distrust” toward Mojeb as he repeatedly refused to answer questions about the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body.

Similarly, a senior Turkish official told AFP on Oct. 31 that Saudi officials appeared unwilling to “genuinely cooperate” with Turkey.

Talks between top prosecutors produce no results

Prosecutor Al Mojeb arrived in Istanbul on Oct. 28 night and held talks on Oct. 29 with Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, İrfan Fidan, days after he contradicted weeks of Saudi statements by saying that Khashoggi’s killing was premeditated.

He held a second round of talks with Fidan at the court house on Oct. 30 before inspecting the Saudi consulate in the Levent neighborhood.

Demirören News Agency reported that Mojeb left Turkey after he visited the Istanbul office of Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT) early Oct. 31.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, was killed inside the consulate after he went there to get documents for his forthcoming marriage on Oct. 2.

After a weeks-long denial, Saudi Arabia admitted on Oct. 25 that the journalist fell victim to a premeditated killing in the building while arresting 18 people, although the whereabouts of his body remained unclear.

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’Wheels in motion to replace MBS with someone compatible with West,’ ex-Pentagon analyst tells RT
3 Nov, 2018 08:05
https://www.rt.com/news/443027-saudi-prince-mohammed-removal/

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Turkey Says Saudis Strangled Khashoggi Immediately On Entering Consulate, Dismembered Body
Wed, 10/31/2018 - 10:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-31/turkey-says-saudis-strangled-khashoggi-immediately-after-entering-istanbul

Assad Must Go.と叫んだ政治権力者は、これまでに選挙で負けて引退を余儀なくされたり、スキャンダルで失脚したり、あるいは病死するなどして、それぞれの国の政界から消えた。一時代を築いたドイツのメルケル首相が今回、その不名誉リストに仲間入りすることになった。

メルケルは、アサド本人には倒されなかったかもしれないが、アサドの国民に倒された。肝心のターゲットである本物の「Assad」が生きながらえている構図が笑える。

100万人単位の難民が自国に押し寄せる政策を、眉間にしわを寄せ、目をつり上げて断行してどうする。「アサドは身を引け」と叫んだ本人が、アサドより先に身を引く屈辱にまみれた。お前は馬鹿なのか。

シリアのムアッリム外相は、シリア戦が始まったごく初期（まだデモをしていた時期）に、「シリアを潰せば難民が欧州に押し寄せますよ〜。そうなっていいんですかぁ〜」と呼びかけていた。シリア戦を激化させても米国とイスラエルが全く困らないことは、最初からわかっていた。なぜならシリア人を受け入れないから。自然と難民はEUへ向かって大行進を始める。まともに政治・歴史を勉強した人ならば、誰だってそう思う。賢者は、経験から学ぶのではなく、歴史に学ぶものですよ。あなたが本当に賢者ならばね（爆）。

サウジもAssad Must Goと叫んだ当初の王が消え、今は現国王を通り越してMBS皇太子が実権を握っているので、Assad Must Goキャンペーンが始まって実質3代目になるわけだが、最近スキャンダルにまみれているので、今後の展開によっては、MBS Must Go, Not Assad.となりうる。彼が赤っ恥を掻かないようお祈りしているところ。

ほかに、シリア戦に積極的に介入しながら残っている権力者は誰かなぁ。トルコのエルドアンと、イスラエルのネタンヤフくらいか？

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Merkel Won't Run for Reelection as Chancellor, to Give Up Post of CDU Head
11:28 29.10.2018
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201810291069310923-germany-regional-election/

Just two weeks after Angela Merkel's Christian Social Union allies witnessed their worst election results in decades in Bavaria, her own Christian Democrats are experiencing déjà vu in Hesse’s regional vote. Meanwhile, the anti-establishment Alternative for Germany has entered the last of the 16 state parliaments.

Angela Merkel, who has been chairwoman of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for 18 years, has confirmed that she won't run again for the party leadership when it has its conference in early December. She has revealed that this term will also be her last as Germany's chancellor, as she won't seek re-election as a CDU lawmaker or run for any other political office.

"At the next CDU party congress in December in Hamburg I will not propose my candidature for the CDU leader post… My fourth tenure will be my last term as the German chancellor. In the 2021 elections, I will not run for the German chancellor or as a candidate for a deputy, neither will apply for other political posts," the chancellor said at a press conference after a closed-door meeting.

Earlier in the day, the German cabinet's spokesman Steffen Seibert said that Merkel will keep the post of Germany’s chancellor until the end of her term in 2021 and the next national election, although she had earlier claimed that the party leadership and the country’s highest government post are indivisible.

Commenting on her decision, Merkel stated that the two main issues she plans to address during the remainder of her term as chancellor are Brexit and US-Russian tensions.

Merkel announced that it was "time to start a new chapter," as she has taken responsibility for her fourth-term government's poor start and voiced a need for changes. She admitted that her party would have secured better results in Hesse’s regional election if not for its performance at the federal level.

However, Merkel revealed that she'd made the decision to drop out of the competition for the party leadership before the parliament’s summer recess. The incumbent CDU leader has also declined to back any of those hoping to succeed her as the party chair. Amid what the German outlet Focus describes as the “CDU quake,” the former leader of the CDU group in the German parliament Friedrich Merz is ready to run for the party leadership, the German outlet Bild reports. CDU's General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and German Health Minister Jens Spahn have also announced plans to compete for the party leadership post, according to sources within the bloc.

The reports have followed the CDU/CSU fiasco in the regional elections in Bavaria and Hesse.

German Gov’t Coalition Mulls Losses in Hesse Election

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU has scored 27% of the vote in the state election in Hesse, as the preliminary tally indicates. Although the party could keep the majority in the state parliament (Landtag), this result is 11.3 points less than its performance there in 2013. The base of Germany’s second major political party and the CDU’s federal coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), has also shrunk by nearly 11 percent since Hesse’s last election five years ago. The party received a mere 19.8% of the vote in a state they once considered their stronghold, which has a population of over 6 million people and is home to Frankfurt am Main, one of Europe's largest financial centers.

The Greens, who have governed Hesse in coalition with the CDU over the last 5 years, were neck-and-neck with the SPD, also securing 19.8% of the vote. Meanwhile, the anti-establishment Alternative for Germany party, which advocates a stricter migration policy, has entered Hesse’s Landtag for the first time with 13.1% of the vote and now holds seats in all of Germany's regional parliaments.

SPD and CDU’s State Election Deja Vu

Hesse’s election has mirrored the Bavarian state vote, held just two weeks ago, which brought big gains for the Greens and AfD, but dealt a sensitive blow to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), as well as the SPD. The CSU, led by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, lost 10 percent in comparison with the 2013 election and scored its worst result in 50 years, which was branded “painful” and “bitter” both by the CSU and CDU.

The SPD’s results showed the same dynamics, as the party attracted 10 percent fewer voters than in 2013. The party blamed its problems on federal-level politics, as SPD leader Andrea Nahles stated that the performance of the CDU/SPD grand coalition was one of the reasons for the crash and claimed that it was “clear that something has to change."

Following the Bavarian election, some politicians noted that it was “a clear signal to Berlin.” Speculations in the German media arose that the results in Hesse could undermine Merkel’s government in Berlin and even shatter her position ahead of her expected reappointment as the head of the CDU in December.

‘Unacceptable:’ Alarm in SPD-CDU Coalition

The dismal results in Hesse have fueled alarmed rhetoric on both sides. The SPD’s Nahles has hastened to claim that "the state of the government is unacceptable." She announced that the SPD would press Merkel's governing coalition to accept "a clear, binding timetable" for the government’s projects. She also reminded about the midterm review next fall, which is to reveal if "we are still in the right place in this government."

The leader of the SPD youth organization Juso, Kevin Kühnert, was more categorical, stating that "on conditions under which we work here in Berlin, the SPD will not get a foot on the ground in any state… Any little fire can make it explode."

The CDU's General Secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer echoed Nahles’ promises, stating that the coalition must identify "three concrete projects for the coming months that we implement."

The SPD and the CDU/CSU bloc struck a coalition agreement amid fierce debates among the Social Democrats half a year after Germany held parliamentary elections in September 2017. Merkel initially planned to form a coalition with the Greens and the FDP, but preliminary talks with them were unsuccessful, so the CDU/CSU had to court the Social Democrats.

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https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/30/german-chancellor-on-ropes-preparing-for-post-merkel-era.html

投票行動に米国大使館、米国本国からの数々の介入があった。賛成投票する人には賄賂を配り、反対投票する人は拘束するなどし、投票結果を露骨に操作した。議会での投票当日には、米国大使が議会内に陣取り、睨みを効かせた。

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The NATO/EU Rape of ‘Complex’ Macedonia
31.10.2018
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/31/nato-eu-rape-of-complex-macedonia.html

In an interview for the Russia-1 television channel, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov revealed that he had raised the question of egregious Western meddling into Macedonia’s recent (September 30) referendum and parliamentary voting (October 19) to push through changes to the country’s name and constitution in order accelerate its accession to NATO (and, much later, if ever, to the EU) with US National Security Adviser John Bolton during his recent visit to Moscow.

“I told him we were accused of meddling not only in the US, but also in Spain, in Brexit and now also in anything that happens in the Western Balkans… We said we kept silent on Macedonia’s referendum, while its capital of Skopje was visited by NATO chief Stoltenberg, defense minister Mattis, German chancellor Merkel... who publicly and bluntly demanded that Macedonians ‘vote for their future’ and say ‘yes’ in a referendum on their membership in the EU and NATO by ‘only’ changing their country’s name,” recalled Lavrov, further reminding that the referendum had flopped but that, nevertheless, the Macedonian parliament went ahead with a vote to amend the country’s constitution, and secured the necessary two-thirds vote “through bribes and promises not to start criminal persecution,” overseen by the US Ambassador to Macedonia, who was present during the proceedings and “who did not merely sit there.”

Bolton’s response? According to Lavrov, he simply smiled and replied that Macedonia was a “quite complex country.”

So, there you have it. It’s officially open season on all the world’s “complex” countries – and guess who gets to define “complex” – should they ever even contemplate voting the “wrong way,” as interpreted by the West’s arbiters of democracy, even the avowed “non-interventionists” in the White House.

If anything, Lavrov was understating what some observers literally described as a “rape” of Macedonia’s democratic [sic] institutions on the part of the Western deep state establishment hell-bent on dragging the tiny country into NATO (with the highly unrealistic prospect of EU membership merely being used as a carrot to placate domestic and international public opinion), in order to completely encircle the last staunch anti-NATO holdouts in Europe outside of Russia and Belarus – Serbia and the Serbs in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.

It was bad enough that Western officialdom simply ignored the popular will of the Macedonians and collectively pretended that a 36.91% referendum turnout in fact expressed the “will of the majority,” and that it was sufficiently legitimate to move the matter to Parliament, where a two-thirds vote was required to move forward with the process of amending the constitution. This despite the fact that the West’s hand-picked prime minister, Zoran Zaev, had given assurances before the referendum that “citizens will make the decision,” and that Parliament would vote on the necessary constitutional changes only if the referendum was successful (meaning a 50% + 1 turnout and a majority “yes” vote).

Then, five days before the parliamentary vote, US Vice-President Mike Pence sent a “letter of support” to Zaev, ascertaining that Macedonians had, in fact, approved the name change agreement with Greece after all, because, you see, “90% (or less than a third of all the Macedonian voters – author’s note) of those that voted approved the Prespa Agreement.” Two days later, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Wess Mitchell, fired off a letter to Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of Macedonia’s main opposition party (which opposes the name change agreement with Greece), VMRO-DPMNE, expressing “disappointment” with his party’s negative position vis-à-vis the referendum and the upcoming parliamentary vote and urging him to “create space” for his party’s MPs to vote “free from threats of violence, retribution, or other forms of coercion.”

As it turned out, Mitchell’s just wanted to make sure that “threats of violence, retribution or other forms of coercion” would remain the exclusive domain of Zaev’s puppet government and the US Embassy. And, thus, four days before the parliamentary vote, Zaev put forth an “indecent proposal” for the opposition, i.e. “amnesty for their members who are on trial for unrest at the Assembly that took place on April 27 of last year," when a former Albanian terrorist guerilla commander was elected as Parliament Speaker under strong US and EU pressure. Or, as Zaev pithily put it: “I know that everything has a price. I am ready to pay it.”

On voting day, October 19, the vote was delayed three times until the necessary two-thirds majority was secured. As to how it was secured was best summarized by a Russian Foreign Ministry statement:

“We consider what happened as a flagrant violation of all norms – both from the point of view of the law and in the moral sense… Eight votes that were necessary to secure a qualified majority were ensured by the means of blackmailing, threats and bribing opposition parliament members. Three of them, purely by chance, were released from arrest on that same day. Two others, who had open cases investigated by special prosecutors, were promised freedom. Others received corrupt financial offers in exchange for 'the right vote'. Parliament members were locked in their rooms, their cell phones were seized – this is very much in line with the spirit of European democratic practice… The American ambassador was present in the Parliament building until the end of the session, leaving no doubt as to who was leading the process… Such dirty manipulations cannot be considered the expression of will of parliament members….”

That the Russians were not exaggerating was confirmed by, among others, a tweet from Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos: “Who would have thought that in Europe of values and democracy those who do not vote according to instructions are jailed, and those who comply get a 2 million euro bonus in black money.”

Opposition leader Mickoski denounced the parliamentary circus as Macedonia’s “Black Friday” and a case of “classic rape,” and proceeded to expel from the party the seven MPs who changed sides and helped secure the necessary two-thirds vote. Bulgarian daily “Sliven Now” accused the CIA and Greece’s Soros funds of bribing the renegade Macedonian MPs. (Links between US diplomats – specifically the present US Ambassador to Macedonia, Jess Baily – and billionaire interventionist George Soros and their joint work on destabilizing Macedonia using US taxpayer money have been public knowledge for a couple of years.) According to a former adviser to the Macedonian President, Cvetin Chilimanov, the Parliament building was “under siege” on the day of the voting, teeming with politicians, police and officials from the public prosecutor’s office, and opposition leaders claimed that their MPs were offered anywhere from 250.000 to 2 million euros to change their vote.

Naturally, as was the failed referendum, the parliamentary charade was hailed by the usual EU/NATO suspects. EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn gushed that it was “a great day for democracy in Skopje,” adding for good measure his expectation that “the free choice of all MPs is fully respected.” Hahn also issued a supportive joint statement with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the EU Commission. And NATO’s Gensec Jens Stoltenberg unflinchingly “welcomed” the outcome of the Macedonian parliamentary shenanigans and urged the MPs to “seize this historic opportunity.”

The process is not finished, as two more votes (or “votes”) are pending in what’s left of the Macedonian Parliament – on a draft proposal of the necessary constitutional amendments (needing a simple majority), and on the adoption of the final amendments, for which a two-thirds majority will once again be needed, along with the signature of Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, who himself boycotted the referendum. If everything goes as planned and/or paid, the scene will then move to the Greek Parliament, which must also vote on the changes. According to the Prespa Agreement, the Macedonian side needs to finish its business by the end of 2018, and it is expected that the Greek Parliament will do its part in early 2019. With a little help from their Western friends, no doubt.

Russian-Indian Deal on S-400 Supplies Signed in Rubles - Deputy Prime Minister
09:59 31.10.2018
https://sputniknews.com/world/201810311069374736-russia-india-s-400/

HAVANA (Sputnik) - The Russian-Indian contract on supply of S-400 air defense systems has been signed in the Russian national currency, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Wednesday.

"The contract is signed in rubles," the official said.

Moscow is intending to use national currencies in its defense cooperation deals instead of relying on US dollars.

READ MORE: India to Send Military Team to Ease US Concerns on S-400 Deal — Reports

Night launch of S-400 Triumf missiles from an anti-aircraft weapon system at Ashuluk proving grounds during an Aerospace Defence Forces tactical drill
© Sputnik / Ruslan Krivobok
Pakistan Claims India's Purchase of S-400 to Disrupt 'Strategic Stability'
In early October, Moscow and New Delhi concluded a contract on the deliveries of Russia's S-400 missile systems to India worth over $5 billion. The deal was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day visit to India.

The United States voiced its concern over the Indian plans to purchase the S-400 systems, pointing out that sanctions over the deal could not be ruled out.

The S-400 Triumf system is a next-generation mobile air defense system, which is capable of destroying aerial targets at an extremely long range of up to 400 kilometers (almost 250 miles).

関連記事

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（追記）
インドくらいの大国になると、米国が制裁をちらつかせても動じることはなく、自らが欲する兵器システムを購入できることを示した。また、脱米ドル化が実行可能な選択肢であることも示した。これらは、米国に対する強烈なメッセージである。

Double Trouble: Why Ruble-Priced S-400s for India are Big Problem for Washington
18:21 01.11.2018
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201811011069424164-s400s-for-india-in-rubles-implications/

The $5 billion+ deal between Moscow and New Delhi for five regiments of Russia's cutting-edge air defense system got an added bonus this week after it was revealed that the contract will be paid for in rubles. Taking a look at the deal's details, Sputnik discovered that it's really a double blow to the US military-industrial complex.

'Message to Washington'

On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov confirmed that the S-400 deal with India was signed in rubles, becoming the first major non-dollar denominated defense deal Russia has signed since 1991. In exchange for approximately 330 billion rubles, India will get five S-400 regiments (i.e. ten battalions, with each battalion consisting of 8 launchers, 112 missiles and the associated command and support vehicles) of the most advanced air defense system in Russia's arsenal.

Boris Rozhin, a military observer with a background in advanced weaponry, called the sale of the S-400s in rubles a "message to Washington."

"For India, this is a means of showing that the country doesn't depend on Washington on key issues related to its foreign policy. This is something the country's leaders have talked about – that India would buy armaments from whoever it wants, and however it wants," the analyst explained, speaking to Sputnik.

According to Rozhin, the contract, and particularly its ruble-based terms, is really "a demonstrative message to Washington, which has been expressing its disapproval with New Delhi for not heeding the requests and threats made by the White House and State Department. In this way, India is making it clear that it is too big a country to be treated like a puppet or vassal state."

During the final stages of negotiations on the S-400s, Washington threatened to impose secondary sanctions on India in accordance with the 2017 'Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act' (CATSA), similar to the ones imposed on China in September for Beijing's purchase of Russian S-400s and Su-35s. On Sunday, a White House spokesman hinted that President Trump may skip a visit to India next year for the country's Republic Day celebrations, presumably in connection with Delhi's actions on the S-400s and its purchases of Iranian oil.

India is a loyal customer of Russian weapons, with arms deals with Moscow accounting for up to a quarter of its foreign purchases in recent years, and military cooperation going back to Soviet days. Two years from now, when the first party of S-400s arrives, New Delhi will become the fifth country in the world with access to the system, after Russia itself, Belarus, China, and Turkey, which signed a contract on S-400 deliveries with Moscow last year.

Chipping Away at the Dollar System

In Rozhin's opinion, the decision to price the Indian S-400s in Russia's national currency was a kind of bonus, serving as "another small step toward abandoning the total hegemony of the dollar system. And there are more and more steps of this kind being made, whether in arms, energy, or elsewhere," the analyst stressed.

Russian Defense Ministry Explains Why S-400 is Better Than Patriots

According to Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication figures, about 40 percent of world payments are made using US dollars, with the simplification of trade associated with denominating contracts in dollars helping to prop the dollar up as the de facto world currency. In recent years, members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Eurasian political, economic and security pact founded by Russia, China, and several Central Asian states and joined by India and Pakistan in 2017, have been actively searching for ways to bypass dollar settlements.

Andrei Frolov, defense observer and editor-in-chief of Arms Export magazine, says that the S-400 deal in rubles is a win for Rosoboronexport and the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, two Russian agencies which have been openly talking about dropping the dollar in recent months.

"There are no serious technical difficulties associated with rejecting dollar settlements," the observer explained. "If we are talking about the contract with India, it's most likely that Delhi will simply buy rubles on the exchange. It's worth recalling that during the Cold War, Moscow similarly avoided dollar-denominated settlements with India. Instead, 'clearing rubles' were used in what was essentially a special form of barter."

The major issue associated with non-dollar settlements is the need for more careful negotiations on price, accounting for economic risks like currency fluctuations and inflation, Frolov said. Convenience was another issue.

"It must be admitted that non-dollar denominated contracts are less convenient for the customer. Nevertheless, much depends on political will. India has chosen to make a deal in rubles due to fears from the banking sector that Washington will block its ability to conduct transactions. Essentially, with its sanctions policy, the Americans are pushing India, China, Iran and Russia to abandon the dollar," the expert stressed.

India Looks to Avoid US Dollar Payments in Bilateral Trade With Russia

In effect, India's purchase of the Russian air defense system instead of the Patriot PAC-3 is not only a victory for the Russian defense industry over its US competitors, but may serve as the first step to overcoming the powerful US sanctions mechanism deployed by Washington against countries which don't subscribe to its unipolar conception of foreign policy. Down the road, the Indian S-400 deal could serve as a kind of template for future Russian arms deals, no longer dependent on the greenback.

Designed to stop enemy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles at a range of up to 400 km and an altitude of up to 30 km, the S-400 can also be deployed against ground targets, and is the most advanced air defense system in Russia's arsenal.

前半2本の記事は、表題の内容。

3本目の記事は、国連に出入りして活動しているNGOに対し、サウジアラビアが、イエメンの内情についてサウジに好意的な報告書を発表する団体に合計9億3千万ドルを配布するという文書を配ったという内容。

さすが石油王だけあって反省しない。

カネがなくて日々の生活に困っているあなた。石油王に魂を売れば、楽な生活を手に入れることができますよ。そうしている人は、実は沢山いる。あなたが知らないだけ（笑）。

ずっと前に米国が発表した新中東地図によると、サウジも滅んで分裂することになっているので、そろそろそのような事件が起きてもよい頃かと・・・。ヨルダンのハーシム王家がヒジャーズに戻る日が、いよいよ到来するのか（笑）。

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Mattis Calls For Yemen Ceasefire Within 30 Days
Tue, 10/30/2018 - 19:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-30/mattis-calls-yemen-ceasefire-within-30-days

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has called for a ceasefire in the Yemen civil war within 30 days, reports AFP.

"We want to see everybody around a peace table based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border & then based on ceasing dropping of bombs...you can’t say we’re going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days," said Mattis while speaking at the United States Institute of Peace.

Mattis on Yemen Civil War: "We want to see everybody around a peace table based on a ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border & then based on ceasing dropping of bombs...you can’t say we’re going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days"
— Ryan Browne (@rabrowne75) October 30, 2018

Mattis says US refueling support of Saudi and UAE jets “provide a level of capability so they are not killing innocent people.” Hints that the US is looking for a ceasefire in 30 days to accelerate the peace process in Yemen. “I believe that the Saudis and the Emirates are ready”
— Jack Detsch (@JackDetsch_ALM) October 30, 2018

Mattis added "I believe the Saudis and the Emiratis are ready."

The big take from #Mattis:
*Assad has to be managed out of power : Any election has no credibility
*Calling for a ceasefire in Yemen within 30 days
*A new approach for the solution in Yemen
— Hiba Nasr (@HibaNasr) October 30, 2018

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US Pressuring Saudis To Heal Qatar Rift, Ease Sanctions, As Riyadh's Isolation Grows
Wed, 10/31/2018 - 01:00
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-30/us-pressuring-saudis-heal-qatar-rift-ease-sanctions-khashoggi-outrage-grows

In the latest fallout over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the United States is demanding that Saudi Arabia make nice with Qatar, according to sources quoted in Bloomberg.

Three officials with knowledge of the issue have described to Bloomberg that the US is "raising pressure" on the kingdom to "wind down" its ongoing "political and economic isolation of Qatar" at a moment that Riyadh is potentially facing its own such isolation as international outrage has grown since the October 2nd slaying of Khashoggi inside the Istanbul consulate.

One U.S. official further says the Saudis are being asked to "take steps" to wind down its over three-year long bombing campaign in Yemen, or at least to greatly mitigate the factors causing a massive humanitarian crisis in famine — an ironic and contradictory request given the Pentagon's own lead role as part of the Saudi coalition.

Since June of 2017, when a rift came out in the open and Saudi Arabia led a full economic and diplomatic blockade of its tiny oil and gas rich neighbor along side three other Gulf Cooperation Council states of the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain (non-GCC Egypt also initially cut ties), the two sides have essentially been in a state of war; however Qatar has remained defiant throughout the unprecedented crisis, relying on its vast oil wealth to weather the storm.

The land, air, and sea Saudi-led boycott has included aggressive economic sanctions, even food blockages, as most of Qatar's basic staples had previously been supplied by land via Saudi Arabia. But it's been hugely awkward for Western allies of both countries like the United States and Britain, as Qatar hosts the largest US/UK military base in the Middle East, Al Udeid Air Base, located 20 miles southwest of the Qatari capital of Doha and home to some 11,000 US military personnel, plus Royal Air Force units.

Given Washington's close economic and military ties to both countries, healing the inter-GCC schism has been a priority for the White House, and it now appears to be using the international outcry to pressure Riyadh in an amenable direction regarding Qatar.

Could the pressure already be working? Last week at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative (FII) hosted in Riyadh, which a number of Western companies and media outlets boycotted, Crown Prince MbS took the the previously unheard of step (since the 16-month crisis with Doha began) of acknowledging the resilience of Qatar’s “strong economy” and forecast progress over the next half decade.

“Even Qatar, despite our differences with them, has a very strong economy and will be very different” in the next five years, the prince said at an investment summit in the Saudi capital as he explained his vision for the Middle East’s place in the world. — Bloomberg

These words alone signal an opening between the two countries that could lead to detente under Washington oversight.

Though Trump had previously seemed to endorse the Saudi position that Qatar is a state sponsor of terror in the region and had helped facilitate Iranian influence and expansion, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had previously attempted to negotiate an agreeable closure to the crisis and softening of tensions, without success.

But it appears that in the end the Saudis will only perhaps respond to what they know best — blackmail. So ultimately should MbS survive the heat of the Khashoggi investigation, it will likely come at the expense of having to make nice with Qatar and play by other Washington rules as well.

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Leaked U.N. Memo Reveals Saudis Demanded Western Propaganda For $1bn Pledged To Aid Agency
Wed, 10/31/2018 - 02:45
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-30/leaked-un-document-reveals-saudis-demanded-western-propaganda-1bn-given-aid-agency

We wonder if the Saudis had never been caught in Jamal Khashoggi's gruesome murder, would such essential stories and leaks now happening such as the below Guardian report ever see the light of day? On Tuesday The Guardian published select contents of a leaked internal United Nations document detailing a "pay to play" scheme orchestrated by Saudi Arabia.

According to the leaked document, the Saudis demanded that aid groups and humanitarian agencies operating in Yemen provide favorable publicity for Saudi Arabia in return for Riyadh providing close to a billion dollars to fund their efforts. The document identifies $930m given to the aid groups, even as the Saudi-led coalition bombed the very people the donations were supposed to help.

The Guardian report calls the extent of Saudi demands "highly unusual" as part of the requirement for groups to receive aid included floating favorable stories and coverage of "the Saudi humanitarian effort in Yemen" to newspapers like the New York Times and the Guardian — publications specifically named in the internal memo. Thus the nearly $1bn was essentially hush money for the sake of propaganda meant to shield the kingdom from scrutiny over its Yemen actions.
Secretary-General is António Guterres with Saudi FM Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir

The Guardian report described the following of the leaked memo:

The document, entitled Visibility Plan, covers the terms of the 2018 humanitarian budget for Yemen, and shows the extent to which the UN aid agency, Ocha, was put under pressure to accept the PR strings attached to money given both by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The two countries provided nearly one third of the total UN humanitarian budget for Yemen for this year.

The UAE was deeply involved in the plan — especially ironically given that its pilots and warplanes have been reported at the forefront of the bombing campaign which has continued unabated since 2015, resulting in what U.N. officials have designated "the world's worst humanitarian crisis".

Aid agencies were made aware that the extent of Saudi donations made to their efforts were expressly tied to "the amount of beneficial publicity given to Saudi Arabia," the U.N. document reveals. And further, One demand states: “One would expect from Ocha or [a] recipient agency to publish articles in recognized daily newspapers such as the New York Times or the Guardian, highlighting our contribution.”

The Guardian further quotes one section of the leaked document requiring that aid agencies "prove" their level of promoting the Saudis' supposed "good works". The document states that aid agencies had to agree to the following:

We consider it very important to ensure that our dear fellow Yemenis are all aware of our donations. More emphasis should be placed on strengthening the local visibility plan by engaging local media … so that donors get deserved recognition and not to be overshadowed by the recipient’s agencies’ visibility.

The document reveals that five different UN aid-linked agencies agreed to the Saudi list of demands, set out in 48 specific steps, with the most notable groups including: the UN Development Programme, Ocha, the World Health Organization and Unicef.

Bombshell: Leaked document shows the UN is for sale. #KSA and #UAE destroyed #Yemen, then paid the #UN to publicize their 'good works' in that broken state. https://t.co/JjFPTEnYjF @antonioguterres
— Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) October 30, 2018

According to The Guardian, "The leaked documents also show the pressure the two countries have brought to bear on the UN to raise their profile as charitable donors."

Amazingly, among the demands included the designation of a point person to ensure that Saudi wishes were carried out:

Although the documents show that Ocha resisted some of the Saudi demands, the agency complied with a Saudi request that “a specialised person is recruited by Ocha to be the focal point to ensure the implementation plan by all recipient agencies and to consolidate reports”.

For much of the past three years of war in Yemen most of the Western public have remained largely in the dark as to the true scale of the humanitarian nightmare unfolding in the country.

Only with crown prince MbS recently in the hot seat and media spotlight surrounding the Jamal Khashoggi murder have publications from the New York Times to Washington Post to networks like CNN belatedly increased their focus on the Saudi and U.S. role in facilitating Yemen's widespread suffering.

The New York Times and others only began to expose Saudi war crimes in Yemen in the weeks after Jamal Khashoggi's murder, despite airstrikes occurring for over three years:

"We're surprised the Khashoggi case is getting so much attention while millions of Yemeni children are suffering," a doctor said. "Nobody gives a damn about them." https://t.co/e3GELJKP65
— The New York Times (@nytimes) October 26, 2018

But now with the release of this bombshell document it's confirmed that even the U.N. had made itself the propaganda puppet of the Saudis alongside an already willing mainstream media.

It should also be remembered that, absurdly, the U.N. in 2017 elected Saudi Arabia to a 2018-2022 term on its Commission on the Status of Women, despite the kingdom's well-known reputation as the “most misogynistic regime” on earth. Perhaps the Saudi "aid money" for Yemen had already started to line U.N. pockets?

As journalist and Middle East expert Sharmine Narwani points out, the leaked document essentially "shows the UN is for sale" as "the KSA and UAE destroyed Yemen, then paid the UN to publicize their 'good works' in that broken state."

ニュースそのものより私が関心を持っていることは、数日前から保守系まとめサイトを中心に、大量の不正アクセスが原因とやらで、アクセスできない状態が続いている件。サイト管理者は警察に被害届を出しても良さそうなものだが、そうしているようには見えない。

犯人は日本側か韓国側か、官か民か。

いわゆるパヨク活動家が一斉にF5キーを押しているとする説もあるが、ひょっとしたら国内で民族対立が燃え上がるのを避ける目的で、日本側の官がやっているのかもしれません。

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韓国最高裁　新日鉄に４千万円賠償命じる＝徴用工訴訟で原告の勝訴確定
2018/10/30 14:44
聯合ニュース
http://japanese.yonhapnews.co.kr/relation/2018/10/30/0400000000AJP20181030002400882.HTML

【ソウル聯合ニュース】日本による植民地時代に強制徴用された韓国人被害者４人が新日本製鉄（現新日鉄住金）に損害賠償を求めた訴訟で、韓国の大法院（最高裁）は３０日、原告を逆転勝訴させた差し戻し控訴審判決を支持し、新日鉄に原告１人当たり１億ウォン（約１０００万円）の支払いを命じた。

　大法院は被害賠償を否定した日本の判決は韓国の憲法に反するもので、１９６５年の韓日請求権協定によって強制徴用被害者の個人請求権問題が消滅したとみることはできないと判断した。

　また、新日鉄住金は加害者の旧新日本製鉄と法的に同一会社であるため、賠償責任があるとした上で、賠償請求権の消滅時効の主張は信義誠実の原則にも反すると判断した。　

　日本政府は強制徴用被害者の個人請求権問題は韓日間の請求権協定で解決済みとの立場を取っており、両国間の外交やビジネスへの影響は必至だ。

　原告は１９９７年に損害賠償を求めて日本で提訴。大阪地裁は損害賠償の責任がないとして、原告の訴えを退け、２００３年１０月に最高裁で原告敗訴が確定した。

　原告は０５年に今度は韓国で訴訟を起こしたが、一審と二審は「日本の確定判決は韓国でも認められる」として原告敗訴の判決を下した。しかし大法院は１２年５月に「日本の判決は日本植民地時代の強制動員そのものを違法と見なしている韓国の憲法の中核的な価値と真っ向から対立する。韓国の善良な風俗と社会秩序に反した判決であることは明らかだ」とした上で「個人の賠償請求権は有効」としてソウル高裁に審理を差し戻した。翌年７月の差し戻し控訴審で同高裁は「日本の核心軍需業者だった旧日本製鉄（新日鉄）は日本政府とともに侵略戦争のため人を動員するなど、反人道的な違法行為を犯した」とし、原告に１億ウォンずつ、計４億ウォンの支払いを命じた。

　新日鉄側は判決を不服として再上告。大法院は５年以上、判決を下さず、原告のうち３人は判決を前に死去し、遺族らが引き継いだ。同訴訟を巡っては、朴槿恵（パク・クネ）前政権が大法院に対日関係への配慮を求めた介入疑惑が取り沙汰され、検察が捜査を開始。そんな中、今年７月２７日、大法院長と大法官１２人全員による合議体での審理が始まった。重大な事案の場合、大法院は全員での審理を行う。

　日本企業に賠償を命じる判決が確定したことで、韓日間の外交摩擦は避けられない見通しだ。日本政府は自国企業に賠償を命じる判決が出れば、国家間の紛争を扱う国際司法裁判所（ＩＣＪ）への提訴などの強硬対応に出るとみられる。日本企業の韓国でのビジネスにも悪影響を与えかねず、対韓投資などが冷え込む可能性がある。

上海出身の筆者である枢機卿は、教皇について以下のように断罪。現教皇はアルゼンチン出身であり、非抑圧者解放の観点で共産主義勢力と親和性が高く、長いこと共闘してきた。その経歴ゆえ、共産主義勢力が一旦権力の座についたらどのように変貌するのかについて、教皇の認識は全くなっていない。もし私が新聞の風刺画を担当するならば、教皇が天国への鍵を習近平に差し出し、どうか私を教皇に任命してくださいとひざまづいている絵を描くだろう、とこき下ろした。

実はこの方針転換の裏で、激しい論争が内部で発生していたのだが、最後に教皇の権限で押し通して発表したに過ぎない、ということだ。トランプのAmerica First政策で始まった自国第一主義の風潮の中で、バチカンはChina First, Vatican Secondをやってしまった。未だ内部で鎮火せず、火が燃えさかっているので、もう一波乱、二波乱あるだろう。

広く一般市民が読む新聞で、上司である教皇をここまで批判するかという驚愕の内容。歴史に残りそうな書簡なので、私も記録しておくことにした。

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The Pope Doesn’t Understand China
Joseph Zen Ze-Kiun
Cardinal Zen is a retired bishop of Hong Kong.
Oct. 24, 2018

HONG KONG — Last month the Vatican announced that it had come to a provisional agreement with the government of China over the appointment of Catholic bishops. Supporters of the deal say that it finally brings unity after longstanding division — between an underground Church loyal to the pope and an official church approved by the Chinese authorities — and that with it, the Chinese government has for the first time recognized the authority of the pope. In fact, the deal is a major step toward the annihilation of the real Church in China.

I know the Church in China, I know the Communists and I know the Holy See. I’m a Chinese from Shanghai. I lived many years in the mainland and many years in Hong Kong. I taught in seminaries throughout China — in Shanghai, Xian, Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang — between 1989 and 1996.

Pope Francis, an Argentine, doesn’t seem to understand the Communists. He is very pastoral, and he comes from South America, where historically military governments and the rich got together to oppress poor people. And who there would come out to defend the poor? The Communists. Maybe even some Jesuits, and the government would call those Jesuits Communists.

Francis may have natural sympathy for Communists because for him, they are the persecuted. He doesn’t know them as the persecutors they become once in power, like the Communists in China.

The Holy See and Beijing cut off relations in the 1950s. Catholics and other believers were arrested and sent to labor camps. I went back to China in 1974 during the Cultural Revolution; the situation was terrible beyond imagination. A whole nation under slavery. We forget these things too easily. We also forget that you can never have a truly good agreement with a totalitarian regime.

China has opened up, yes, since the 1980s, but even today everything is still under the Chinese Communist Party’s control. The official church in China is controlled by the so-called patriotic association and the bishops’ conference, both under the thumb of the party.

From 1985 to 2002, Cardinal Jozef Tomko was the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which oversees the Church’s missionary work. He was a Slovak, who understood communism, and he was wise.

Cardinal Tomko’s position was that the underground Church was the only lawful Church in China, and that the official church was unlawful. But he also understood that there were many good people in the official church. Like the bishop of Xian, who for a time was a vice chairman of the bishops’ conference. Or the bishop of Shanghai, Jin Luxian, a Jesuit and a brilliant linguist, who had been interned in the 1950s.

Back then, the Holy See had a cautious policy that it implemented generously. It was amenable to reasonable compromise but had a bottom line.

Things changed in 2002, when Cardinal Tomko reached the age of retirement. A young Italian with no foreign experience replaced him and began legitimizing official Chinese bishops too quickly, too easily, creating the impression that now the Vatican would automatically second Beijing’s selection.

Hope returned when Joseph Ratzinger, a German who had lived through both Nazism and communism, became Pope Benedict XVI. He brought on Cardinal Ivan Dias, an Indian who had spent time in West Africa and South Korea, to head the congregation of evangelization, and that internationalized the Vatican. A special commission for the Church in China also was set up. I was appointed to it.

Unfortunately, Cardinal Dias believed in Ostpolitik and in the teachings of a state secretary in the 1980s who had been a proponent of détente with Soviet-controlled governments. And he applied the policy to China.

When Benedict issued his famous letter to the Church of China in 2007, calling for reconciliation among all Catholics there, something incredible happened. The Chinese translation was released with errors, including one too important not to have been deliberate. In a delicate passage about how priests in the underground might accept recognition by the Chinese authorities without necessarily betraying the faith, a critical caveat was left out about how “almost always,” however, the Chinese authorities imposed requirements “contrary to the dictates” of Catholics’ conscience.

Some of us raised the issue and the text was eventually corrected on the Vatican’s website. But by then, the mistaken original had widely circulated in China, and some bishops there had understood Benedict’s historic letter as encouragement to join the state-sanctioned church.

Today, we have Pope Francis. Naturally optimistic about communism, he is being encouraged to be optimistic about the Communists in China by cynics around him who know better.

The commission for the Church in China no longer convenes, even though it has not been dissolved. Those of us who come from the periphery, the front lines, are being marginalized.

I was among those who applauded Francis’s decision to appoint Pietro Parolin as secretary of state in 2013. But I now think that Cardinal Parolin cares less about the Church than about diplomatic success. His ultimate goal is the restoration of formal relations between the Vatican and Beijing.

Francis wants to go to China — all popes have wanted to go to China, starting with John Paul II. But what did Francis’s visit to Cuba in 2015 bring the Church? The Cuban people? Almost nothing. And did he convert the Castro brothers?

The faithful in China are suffering and are now coming under increasing pressure. Early this year, the government tightened regulations on the practice of religion. Priests in the underground on the mainland tell me that they are discouraging parishioners from coming to Mass to avoid arrest.

Francis himself has said that although the recent agreement — whose terms haven’t been disclosed — provides for “a dialogue about eventual candidates,” it is the pope who “appoints” bishops. But what good is having the last word when China will have all the words before it? In theory the pope could veto the nomination of any bishop who seems unworthy. But how many times can he do that, really?

Soon after the deal was announced, two Chinese bishops from the official church were sent to Vatican City for the synod, a regular meeting of bishops from around the world. Who selected them? Both men are known to be close to the Chinese government. As I have said, their presence at the gathering was an insult to the good bishops of China.

Their presence also raises the painful question of whether the Vatican will now legitimize the seven official bishops who remain illegitimate. The pope has already lifted their excommunication, paving the way for them to be formally granted dioceses.

The official church has about 70 bishops; the underground Church has only about 30. The Chinese authorities say: You recognize our seven and we’ll recognize your 30. That sounds like a good trade-off. But will the 30 then be allowed to still function as underground bishops? Surely not.

They will be forced to join the so-called bishops’ conference. They will be forced to join the others in that bird cage, and will become a minority among them. The Vatican’s deal, struck in the name of unifying the Church in China, means the annihilation of the real Church in China.

If I were a cartoonist I would draw the Holy Father on his knees offering the keys of the kingdom of heaven to President Xi Jinping and saying, “Please recognize me as the pope.”

And yet, to the underground bishops and priests of China, I can only say this: Please don’t start a revolution. They take away your churches? You can no longer officiate? Go home, and pray with your family. Till the soil. Wait for better times. Go back to the catacombs. Communism isn’t eternal.

Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a Shanghai native, is a retired bishop of Hong Kong.

不法占領であることを当事者が認めてしまいました（笑）。

認めざるを得ないよねぇ。だって、al-Tanfの米軍基地にいるのがISであることは証明されているから（爆）。米軍はISを殲滅させておらず、保護している。IS＝米軍というオチ。

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General Admits US Presence in Syria's al-Tanf is Aimed Against Iran - Reports
20:08 23.10.2018
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201810231069147708-us-base-syria-goals/

Located on Syrian territory near the border with Jordan, the military base in al-Tanf is reportedly being employed by the United States to train militants belonging to the anti-government opposition, with Damascus branding the US presence in the area as illegal.

Despite the claims made by US officials that the country’s military base in Syria’s al-Tanf helps curb the activities of Daesh* terrorists, it appears that the base currently serves as an important element of Washington’s anti-Iranian agenda in the region.

As US Army Gen. Joseph Votel told NBC News, the al-Tanf garrison is a strategically important installation which helps Washington counter "the sway of Iran" in Syria.

"We don't have a counter Iranian mission here. We have a defeat ISIS mission," Votel claimed. "But I do recognize that our presence, our development of partners and relationships down here does have an indirect effect on some malign activities that Iran and their various proxies and surrogates would like to pursue down here."

A general view shows a damaged classroom at a school after it was hit in an air strike in the village of Hass, in the south of Syria's rebel-held Idlib province on October 26, 2016.
© AFP 2018 / Omar haj kadour
Pompeo Vows to Cut US Reconstruction Aid to Syria If Iran's Forces Stay - Reports
According to the media outlet, the US military use their outpost in Al Tanf to train militants belonging to Maghawir al Thawra – an armed Syrian opposition group which used to be a part of the so called Free Syrian Army.

While General Votel insisted that the primary goal US military presence in Al Tanf is to ensure that the surrounding area "does not support freedom of movement" for Daesh, he also claimed that it has "some kind of indirect effect" on Iran’s alleged activities in Syria.

Tehran however has repeatedly insisted that Iran has limited its assistance to Syria in the fight against Islamist extremists to the provision of military advisers, and that no regular Iranian forces are present on Syrian territory.

READ MORE: US Troops Wrap Up Mass Drills With Militants Near Syria's al-Tanf Base — Reports

The US military currently occupies a 34-mile zone around its base in al-Tanf, where it has been training Syrian opposition forces since 2016.

The base has become the subject of criticism as Damascus and Moscow have expressed concerns that Washington was "spewing Daesh mobile groups who make inroads to launch subversive terrorist operations against Syrian troops and civilians."

READ MORE: Moscow: US Deploying Hardware to Al-Tanf, Boosting Military Presence in Syria

Damascis has repeatedly denounced the US military presence on Syrian soil as illegal, demanding that the American forces leave the country and withdraw from the al-Tanf base.

*Daesh, also known as Islamic State ISIS or ISIL is a terror group, banned in the United States, Russia and many other countries.

この問題は、軍事技術を学ぶ分野、それも大学院レベルの研究活動に、密入国した本人もしくはその子孫を、何の制限もなく受け入れ、特殊な知識を惜しげもなく教授し、卒業後は自由な活動を許す環境を用意していた日本政府が一番悪いって話ですよね。

まるで朝鮮総連が悪いみたいな書き方だが、批判する方向性が正反対なのではないかと。日頃から中国が悪い、イランが悪いとよその国の悪口ばかり並べておいて、蓋を開けてみたら、安保理に対日制裁を採択してもらえば北朝鮮の核開発は終わるという話だった。

密入国者とその子孫に、日本の道の真ん中を歩かせる法体系は間違いです。馬鹿な話はいい加減に止めろ。

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北に核技術移転か　朝鮮総連系企業、レアアース抽出
10/28(日) 22:50配信
産経新聞
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181028-00000588-san-soci

　在日本朝鮮人総連合会（朝鮮総連）系の貿易会社が、北朝鮮側と合弁会社を立ち上げ、レアアース（希土類）の抽出技術を北朝鮮に移転した疑いがあることがわかった。希土類の採掘、処理の過程で天然ウランの抽出も可能で、実質的に核開発の基本技術が日本から持ち出された形だ。（加藤達也）

　国連安全保障理事会は昨年９月、北朝鮮との合弁を禁止する決議を採択。事業の開始時期とは無関係に、出資などが継続し、未承認で稼働していれば、制裁破りにあたる可能性がある。

　政府関係者によると、貿易会社は「国際トレーディング」（東京都文京区）。同社の周辺に東京工業大大学院で学び、希土類を研究した在日朝鮮人学者が存在しており、北朝鮮との合弁事業で戦略的技術や知識などを移す環境を整え、希土類の抽出技術を移転した可能性があるという。同社は登記簿上、昭和６２年に成立、平成１９年に解散しているが、関係者が完全に活動を止めたかは不透明だ。

　北朝鮮側資料では同社は北朝鮮の「龍岳（リョンアク）山貿易総会社」と共同で２０００万ドルを出資し、「朝鮮国際化学合営会社」（咸興（ハムフン）市）を開いた。朝鮮国際化学は、平成２８年の安保理決議で軍事調達への関与が指摘された「朝鮮連峰（リョンボン）総会社」の子会社と認定。国連は大量破壊兵器開発に関与したとみて朝鮮国際化学の資産を凍結し、監視している。

　これまでの安保理北朝鮮制裁委員会や日本政府の調査で、国際トレーディングが北朝鮮側に合弁出資した疑いが浮上。日本の金融当局がさらに調査を進めたところ、凍結された取引口座の存在が判明した。

　決議違反となる合弁への出資企業が実質的に存在していたとしても、法人・個人を罰する法律はなく責任追及や技術移転の経緯、実態解明は困難という。

　　　　　◇

　トランプ米大統領との首脳会談で「体制の安全の保証」を引き出した金（キム）正恩（ジョンウン）朝鮮労働党委員長にとって当面、優先度の高い課題は国連制裁網の解除とみられる。「合弁禁止」条項の削除は「重大な懸案の一つ」（外務省関係者）だろう。

　金氏は自立的、持続的な経済が育たなければ、国が持たないと考えている可能性が高い。それゆえ、金氏が「合弁」による資本や技術の導入こそ政権の安泰を確実にすると理解しているとしても不思議ではない。

　北朝鮮は１９８４（昭和５９）年、対外経済開放政策の一環として「合営（合弁）法」を定め、外国からの技術や資本の導入を図った。最も当てにしたのが在日本朝鮮人総連合会（朝鮮総連）。だが、閉鎖的で硬直した体質が災いし、開放政策は頓挫しかかった。

　そこで、金日成（イルソン）主席は８６年、日本で商いをする在日朝鮮人は日本での地歩を固め、そのために合弁しなければならない−とする教示を発した。以降、朝鮮総連は合弁に邁進（まいしん）。日本貿易振興機構（ジェトロ）の報告書によると、９１年当時、北朝鮮国内で開設された合弁は約１００社で、８０％が在日朝鮮人とのものだった。

　朝鮮総連系の「国際トレーディング」創業者は、当初から北朝鮮側と軍需企業の「朝鮮国際化学合営会社」を起こすため、日本で起業したと後に語っている。初めからハイテク素材の原料として有用性が高く、北に豊富なレアアース関連の技術を日本から移転する狙いだった。その抽出技術はウランの場合と同様だ。

　取り締まりの法律や体制が整わないため実態把握すら難しく、摘発もできてこなかったが、北朝鮮が仕組んできた合弁の本質は戦略的技術や知識、資本の持ち出しだった。北朝鮮の核・ミサイル開発は、そうした流出の結果の集積である。

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【用語解説】国連安保理による北朝鮮制裁決議

　２００６（平成１８）年１０月の核実験に対する安全保障理事会決議で初めて制裁が盛り込まれ、その後の追加決議で貿易や船舶入港の禁止、人の入国規制から個人や企業、団体の資産凍結などが決まった。１７年９月、合弁事業の原則禁止や北朝鮮制裁委員会が認めていない既存事業の解散を追加。事業の開始時期と無関係に、未承認で稼動（かどう）しているものはすべて対象となる。

気にくわないヤツが1人いたら、必要量の100倍くらいの爆弾を投げつけ、400平米を建物もろとも木っ端みじんに破壊し、1平方キロ内の全ての窓ガラスを割って、知らぬ顔をするのが平常運転のイスラエルが、ヨルダン国王が先日イスラエルに通告した租借地返還の通告に狼狽した。関連記事

本日のエルサレム・ポスト紙の論評欄のポイント。
「イスラエルがすべき対応を書く前に、まずイスラエルが何をすべきでないか書く。（報復してやろうという気を起こして）ヨルダン向けの水供給を止めるなどと言ってはならない」。

「次に、本件については公の場での議論を避け、秘密協議に移すよう、最大限の努力を傾けなければならない。そして、ヨルダンに対し、十分な経済支援を提供するのだ」。

条約上、ヨルダンはイスラエルに対し返還要求するだけで足り、イスラエルの意見を取り入れなければならない義務はない。

あの高慢イスラエルが、ガクブル状態です（笑）。私たちが見たことのない「低姿勢のネタンヤフ」を見ることができますよ！（爆）

ここ数年のヨルダンを観察して、ヨルダン国王はもう完全にイスラエルの子分lesser partnerに成り下がってしまい、何でも言いなりだなぁと思っていたのだが、また興味が沸いてきました。

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Israel and Jordan: A looming crisis that should be prevented
By Elie Podeh
October 25, 2018 20:22
https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Israel-and-Jordan-A-looming-crisis-that-should-be-prevented-570341

Less than 10 months after the resolution of the previous Israeli-Jordanian crisis, a new crisis may be sparked by King Abdullah’s recent decision not to renew the two annexes to the Israeli-Jordanian peace treaty.

When the treaty was signed in October 1994, Israel and Jordan decided to establish a “special regime” in two areas, Naharayim (al-Baqoura in Arabic) and Tzofar (al-Ghumar in Arabic), which would remain under Jordan’s sovereignty with Israeli private land use rights. The “special regime” granted unlimited freedom to the landowners, their employees, and their invitees, without applying any customs or immigration legislation.

According to the treaty, this arrangement would be in place for 25 years and renewed automatically unless Israel or Jordan gives one year’s notice in advance of its termination. In such case, discussions between the parties shall begin.

From a purely domestic Jordanian perspective, this was a timely and astute decision: The king sought to appease the mounting opposition to the peace treaty with Israel in general and the two annexes in particular coming from parliament, political parties, trade unions and civil society at large. Facing growing criticism and periodic waves of demonstrations of citizens protesting against economic and social hardships, the king fired prime minister Hani Mulki in June 2018, but to no avail.

Now, in a single stroke, he managed to divert his people’s attention from their daily problems. Jordanian print and social media applauded the king’s bold decision. In addition, it can be speculated that King Abdullah is frustrated by the right-wing Netanyahu government, which demonstrates little interest in promoting a dialogue with the Palestinians, and is pushing for international recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, thus ignoring Jordan’s special role in the holy Muslim sites in Jerusalem, as stipulated by the peace treaty. In fact, this very issue has been the cause of a series of diplomatic crises between the two countries in recent years.

Admittedly, the decision is difficult to reconcile with the consistently warm Israel-Jordanian military and intelligence cooperation. Collaboration between the two countries grew even stronger in the wake of the Arab Spring, as Israel helped the kingdom in various ways to stop the infiltration of radical jihadi elements from Syrian and Iraqi territories under the control of Islamic State. It seems, therefore, that relations between Israel and Jordan move on two parallel tracks simultaneously: the public and the hidden. Yet, a deterioration in the public domain may also affect the hidden.

ISRAEL WAS not entirely surprised by the king’s decision. If, as all available information suggests, Netanyahu was warned in advance of the coming decision and did nothing to prevent it, then the decision is the result of negligence and miscalculations, and a prime example of how the absence of a foreign minister working in full capacity adversely affects Israel’s decision-making. But it is also yet another demonstration of Israel’s “everything will be OK” (yehiye beseder) syndrome.

The question is what can be done now to prevent the situation from deteriorating into another diplomatic crisis. Unfortunately, as Jordan’s quiet messages went unheeded by Israel, the king tweeted his decision publicly. That makes it difficult for him to backtrack without a blow to his own pride. In addition, by inflaming public opinion, Jordanian media turned the decision into an issue that involves now national honor. Just as the tiny territory of Taba in the Sinai Peninsula became a national issue for Egypt in the 1980s, Naharayim and Tzofar have now became hot issues in Jordan.

How should Israel respond? First, it should be stated what Israel should not do: It should not threaten to cut the water supply to Jordan, which was stipulated in the peace agreement. Water is a highly sensitive issue in Jordan, and Israel has been generous in providing Jordan with more water than stipulated in the agreement, and it should continue doing so.

What Israel should do is make an effort to divert any discussions on this issue from the public to the secret track, removing the sting from the heated public debate in the media on both sides. These secret talks should focus on finding a creative solution based on the peace treaty and the two countries’ shared experience.

Article 7b of the treaty allows the parties to “enter negotiations with a view to concluding agreements on economic cooperation, including trade and the establishment of a free trade area or areas.” A talk with several Israeli experts on the issue emphatically confirmed that a creative solution can be found which will be satisfactory to both sides.

In June 2017, after an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanians after being attacked, it took the Israeli government six months to resolve the crisis with Jordan. It was an unnecessarily long period. Today, Israel should act immediately to contain the looming crisis and propose a reasonable solution to the problem.

The main lesson from this episode is that Israel needs to pay greater attention to diplomacy. But as long as Israel’s foreign policy is subservient to national security considerations, the government will continue to suffer from periodic diplomatic blunders.

The author is a professor at the Department of Islamic and Middle East Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a board member of Mitvim-The Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies.

サウジMBS皇太子による身内取り締まりの数々、米国Kushnerとの接点
Khashoggi Wasn’t the Only Murder Victim of Mohammed bin Salman
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/24/khashoggi-wasnt-only-murder-victim-of-mohammed-bin-salman.html

カショギ切断殺害事件で注目されたトルコの諜報活動。イギリスGCHQの諜報活動はもっと凄い。世界の主な高級ホテル350以上を常時監視しており、外交官や要人がチェックインすると、すぐわかる。
Listening In to Killings – and Everything Else
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/10/24/listening-killings-and-everything-else.html

今更だが米国・サウジ関係のおさらい。米国が提供する保護の対象はサウジ国、サウジ王室ではなくサウジ国王に限定されているから、MBS皇太子のやんちゃは今回が最後になるだろう。
The Quincy Pact only protects the King of Arabia, not his heir
http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html

ご家族には悪いが、私はこの点が気になって、夜眠ることができないです（笑）。

記者団が安田さんの件を念頭に置いて質問したのに対し、官房長官が「日本人の人質はいないと理解している」と発言した事実がある。世間は騒然とした。これって、日本国籍の人質はいないけど、他国籍の人質ならばいるって意味でしょ？なぜ他国籍の人質を日本政府が窓口になって世話するのか？ネットには、なぜか名字だけボカシを入れた彼のパスポートの写真が出回る始末。

皆が消化しきれないものを抱えながら過ごしていたら、なんと、安田さんご本人がビデオ・メッセージで「私は韓国人です」と発言。キター！！！この爆弾発言はネットを駆け巡った。いくら何でも、誘拐犯が彼に「私は韓国人です」と言わせるわけがない。そこは、誘拐犯が人質に精神的圧力をかける箇所ではない（笑）。

有名な事件で既に顔バレしており、著書まで出している成人男性が、名字を隠す意味がわからない。

あんた、誰？どこから来たの？（爆）

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「私は韓国人」発言のシリア拘束日本人が解放…身元確認中
2018年10月24日13時58分
[ⓒ 中央日報/中央日報日本語版]
https://japanese.joins.com/article/411/246411.html?servcode=A00&sectcode=A00

シリア武装団体に拘束された日本人男性が３年４カ月ぶりに解放されたと、日本メディアが２４日報じた。この男性は自らを「韓国人」と話した人物だ。

報道によると、日本政府はシリアで行方不明になった安田純平さん（４４）とみられる人物が２３日夜に解放されたと発表した。菅義偉官房長官はこの日夜、緊急記者会見を開き、「安田氏が解放されてトルコに出国したというカタール政府の連絡を受けた。安田氏はトルコ当局の施設にいて、本人である確率が高い」と述べた。

日本メディアによると、安田さんの解放過程で金銭取引などはなかったという。ある日本政府の関係者は安田さんの健康状態について「意識があり対話できるほど」と伝えた。また「身代金の支払いを含む取引はなかった」と説明した。しかし時事通信によると、英国にいるシリア人権監視団のアブドル・ラフマン代表は「身代金は日本でなくカタールが支払った」とし「拘束されたジャーナリストの解放に注力したことをカタールが国際的に訴えるためだった」と伝えた。

フリージャーナリストの安田さんは２０１５年６月にシリアで行方不明になった。その後、アルカイダ関連組織のアルヌスラ戦線が公開した映像に安田さんと推定される人物が登場したため、安田さんは拘束されたと見なされた。アルヌスラ戦線はその間、４回にわたり映像を公開し、日本側が交渉に応じなければ安田さんをスンニ派武装団体のイスラム国（ＩＳ）に引き渡すと伝えた。

７月に公開された映像で安田さんは自らを韓国人と説明した。当時、インターネットに公開された２０秒ほどの映像で、安田さんはオレンジ色の囚衣を着て、ひげが伸びた姿で登場した。後ろには黒い服装の覆面をした２人が銃を持ったまま立っていた。映像の中の安田さんは日本語で「私の名前は『ウマル』です。韓国人です」と自身を紹介し「きょうの日付は２０１８年７月２５日、とてもひどい環境にいます。今すぐ助けてください」と語った。

当時、安田さんは「韓国人です」と話したが、発言はすべて日本語だった。このために日本政府は映像の人物を日本人ジャーナリストの安田さんである可能性が高いと見なした。特に「２０１５年に日本人２人がイスラム国（ＩＳ）によって斬首されたことがあるため、安田さんが意図的に日本人ではなく韓国人と国籍を伝えたのではないか」という分析があった。

日本政府は今回解放された人物の身元確認のためトルコに外務省の職員を派遣し、２４日午後３時以降に本人かどうかが確認される見通しだ。

米国が近々発動する対イラン経済制裁により、各国がイラン産原油輸入をすることが事実上不可能になるが、カショギ事件を振りかざすエルドアン大統領が、対イラン制裁の対象からトルコを除外するよう米国に求めていることを、トルコ外相が明らかにした。

エルドアンからしたら、カショギ事件は「こりゃ、いいネタを仕入れた！」てな感じなんでしょうね（笑）。

もし同じ事件が日本で発生したら、政府はどのように対応するだろうか。首相官邸に押しかけ怒号を上げる石油業界と、真相追究しようとする警察と、米国の方向をチラチラ見て狼狽する外務省が繰り広げる混沌劇場が、どうしても目に浮かんでしまう。

これまで行け行けドンドンだったイスラエルが、だんまりを決め込んでいる。ネタンヤフの盟友MBS皇太子が失脚したり、事態が妙な方向に発展したりしないか、戦々恐々としているのだと思う。

トルコは1970年代まではシリアより貧しい国だったが、1980年から米国が音頭を取り、OECD諸国がODAを優先的にトルコに回し、経済発展を導いてきた。日本もそのような援助国の一つ。NATOの枠組みでは、軍事力強化を図ってきた。それから38年経過したら、親分に刃向かう大国に育ってしまったというオチ。

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Turkey wants exemption from US sanctions on Iran: FM
October 24 2018 13:03:00
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-wants-exemption-from-us-sanctions-on-iran-fm-138218

Turkey has conveyed to the U.S. that its sanctions on Iran that will come into effect on Nov. 4 is “unilateral,” Turkish foreign minister said on Oct. 24.

Speaking exclusively to Anadolu Agency, Mevlut Çavuşoğlu said the U.S. is implementing sanctions on Iran “unilaterally” and Japan, Asia, the EU countries and Turkey are against it.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from a 2015 landmark nuclear deal between Iran and the P5 1 group of nations - the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany.

Trump began to reinstate U.S. sanctions on Tehran in August, with sanctions targeting Iran's oil sector set to retake effect on Nov. 4.

The sanctions are expected to impact Iranian oil exports, which provide Tehran with the revenue needed to finance its national budget.

European Union countries along with Turkey have condemned Trump's action, vowing to find ways to bypass the re-imposed sanctions.

"We have conveyed (to the U.S.) our necessary demands to get exemption on this issue," Çavuşoğlu stressed.

Çavuşoğlu said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had previously mentioned that Turkey is taking natural gas from Russia and Iran and if it does not have more options, the country would have to continue taking gas from those two countries.

He said the U.S. took a decision, but it affects everyone.

"You can take a decision, but why do you want to punish other companies and countries? It is not a decision of the UN Security Council," Çavuşoğlu said.

He said Turkey has already told the U.S. that the latter's decisions are unilateral and when the countries do not comply with it, the credibility of the U.S. will be harmed.

"Therefore, before taking steps on these issues, you have to consult especially with the countries of the region. You have to consult with the countries doing trade with Iran," he said.

Çavuşoğlu said that the U.S. has withdrawn from the nuclear deal with Iran unilaterally, but the European countries did not withdraw.

"It means that they value this deal," he added.

従来は、国連安保理に基づくジュネーブ会議と平行して、ロシアが主催するソチ会議があり、ロシア、イラン、トルコを中心に、カザフスタンなど若干の国が参加していた。このたび、トルコが主催してトルコ、ロシア、フランス、ドイツが協議する枠組みが開始されることになった。

シリア、イラク、リビア情勢が悪化すると、難民は欧州に押し寄せるが、米国にとっては文字通り「対岸の火事」で何の影響も受けない。米国から指図を受けるだけの立場に、仏独が強く反発したと考えても、決して不自然ではない。

仏独の真の意図と政策変更を楽観視してはならないが、表面的な構図は、米国が世界から孤立したように見える。会議はイスタンブールで開催される予定で、イドリブ県の取り扱いについて協議する。

対北朝鮮経済制裁についても、米国が世界から孤立しているように見えなくないですねぇ。はて、どうしましょうか。関連記事

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（参考情報）
EUには、米国からの指図に従って対イラン経済制裁を導入できない理由がある。イランがEUの裁判所に提訴したところ、米国がいうところの制裁発動の根拠は、CIA情報という名の根拠不明かつ作者不明な怪しい作文しか存在しないことが判明した。EU諸国は「えー、ただの1つも証拠がないの？！」と狼狽し、主たる争点を立証できないまま結審の日を迎えた。裁判所はなんと、制裁解除を命令した。EU側はイランに対し、巨額の損害賠償を支払わされたのだ。

誰だって、こんな無様な裁判をもう1度経験したいと思わない。日本も訴えられたら、負けるかもよ。

（過去記事からの引用）
https://hibikan.at.webry.info/201302/article_5.html　の真ん中あたり。

【EU・イラン】

1月31日、欧州裁判所は、イランのBank Mellatに対する制裁解除を命令。
http://english.irib.ir/news/economy/item/105951-eu-court-annuls-ban-on-iran-bank-mellat
2月6日、欧州裁判所が、イランのBank Saderatに対する制裁解除を命令。EUは同行に対し、全ての損害賠償と裁判費用を支払う（笑）。
http://english.irib.ir/news/economy/item/106325-eu-removes-iran-s-bank-saderat-from-sanctions-list

（これはお笑いニュース。EUは一体何やってんだか。シリアも2年半裁判すれば、経済制裁を解除できるかもしれない。）

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More Peace Dividends As Merkel And Macron Join Syria Summit In Sochi
Sun, 10/21/2018 - 10:30
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-21/more-peace-dividends-merkel-and-macron-join-syria-summit-sochi

Over the summer Russian President Vladimir Putin went on a charm tour across Europe. In a whirlwind weekend he danced and dined his way through two important meetings, first at the Austrian Foreign Minister’s wedding and then a garden party summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

I wasn’t the only one to note the importance of these two meetings. Because this was the beginning of a new era in Russo-European relations.

The first dividend from this was Merkel refusing Trump over stopping construction of the Nordstream 2 pipeline.

The dividends from that weekend continue to roll in.

Because Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have both agreed to join Russia and Turkey at the next meeting in Sochi to craft a political solution to the Syrian civil war.

This is a major event.

It furthers the split on foreign policy between EU leadership and that of the U.S. It also recognizes both Russia’s diplomatic and military achievements in Syria, which are nothing short of game-changing from a geostrategic perspective.

From the RT article linked above:

Russia’s previous efforts to sit down and work out a path to peace in Syria with regional players were dismissed as insignificant or outright fraudulent by the US-led West. The Istanbul four-way is grounds for cautious optimism that Russia is being accepted as a key influence, experts believe.

“Western countries are realizing that without Russia and Turkey there can be no settlement in Syria. Likewise, Russia and Turkey realize they need to agree with Western countries,” Marianna Belenkaya, a Middle East analyst for Russia’s Kommersant daily, told RT.

The EU has a very real stake in the Syrian crisis, Nikolay Surkov believes. They need to talk to Damascus and Moscow if they want to avoid a new migrant influx, he says.

This change in Germany and France’s position on Syria comes through being resolute and trustworthy. Strength emanates out from the person or group that brokers honestly.

I said recently that Donald Trump gives spine to the spineless within the GOP. That his willingness to fight the Democrats and the Deep State on their terms and come out victorious, c.f. Kavanaugh, is changing the domestic political landscape in tectonic ways.

So too, I’m coming to believe, is the case with Putin. His unwillingness to barter away Russia’s future for short-term gains but instead tackle head-on the U.S.’s hypocrisy and aggression on the world stage and win is having a huge effect on other world leaders.

And this announcement by Merkel and Macron to attend Sochi is a perfect example of that.

Germany and France are now looking to broker with Russia against the wishes of the U.S. political and military establishment who have done everything possible to prolong the war and shield the collapse of ISIS east of the Euphrates River and support Al-Qaeda-linked groups in the province of Idlib.

This implies even further marginalization of the war mongers in D.C. who refuse to give up on the removal of Bashar al-Assad as President of Syria. The facts on the ground are that Assad is popular having been strong enough to court partners who assisted the Syrian Arab Army in re-taking most of the country.

This is a dead-end position, removing Assad, and supporting it, even weakly, has cost both Merkel and Macron dearly. And if she, in particular, is to survive the next few months in office, she will have to look to the German electorate as someone willing to change course on immigration.

Assisting Russia and Turkey achieve political stability in Syria will go a long way towards that end. With Trump in the White House wanting to pull U.S. troops out but being sabotaged at every level by his foreign policy staff, there is a real possibility of things aligning to see that come to fruition after the U.S. mid-term elections in two weeks.

The U.S. is in an increasingly untenable position in the Middle East. Iraq’s recent elections and camel-trading have pushed aside the U.S.-backed Haidar Abadi in favor of a government far more aligned with Iran than the U.S.

Afghanistan is in the early stages of U.S. withdrawal after seventeen years of war. The new leadership in Pakistan is as unhappy with the U.S. as Trump is with Pakistan. China, India and Turkey will refuse to stop buying Iranian oil in two weeks.

The plan to isolate and destroy Iran’s current government will fail. And the neocons in Trump’s cabinet who sold him on this plan will pay the price.

After the IL-20 incident which could have easily sparked a much wider conflict I believe everyone on the geopolitical stage peaked a bit into the Abyss only to find neoconservatives, crazy Wahabist Saudis and Israeli Likudniks staring back.

And, in short, they were afraid. (with apologies to T.S. Eliot)

Because something has to give here. And all the signs point to a loss of power and control over the geopolitical landscape by the deepest of Deep State actors in the U.S. and the U.K.

Macron knows that France is implicated in the IL-20 incident. And he also knows that Putin allowed him to save face by blaming the Israelis and implementing a No-Fly Zone over western Syria and the eastern Mediterranean to calm things down.

With his approval numbers plummeting along with every other EU-firster quisling of The Davos Crowd in Europe Macron finally realized that the Russians will be on the winning side of this conflict.

So does Merkel. But, I think she’s known this for a lot longer than Macron.

Germany has been giving mixed signals all year to the various provocations like the Skripal poisoning emanating from the U.K. Germany was slow to accept, if it ever did, the White Helmets story about this year’s annual chemical weapons attack in Eastern Ghouta.

This may be a desperation move on the part of the lamest of lame-ducks on the world stage, but if it gets us materially closer to the ever elusive Grand Bargain in the Middle East I’ll take it.

In fact, I’ll sing an hosanna or two in Merkel’s honor if that happens before going back to blasting her for everything else she’s done.

Because as rare as they are in the Peace corner of Geopolitics, one must remember to first “Take the Win” before moving onto the next problem to discuss.

Russia continues to rack up win after win in all the areas that are important geopolitically. Putin knows that the best way to win this game is to simply wear his opponent out.

And with the Saudis in serious trouble on the world stage over Khashoggi-gate, the Arabian peninsula, not Syria, becomes the next geopolitical hot potato as The Game of Thrones there breaks out across the GCC — Gulf Cooperation Council.

Since he now has the biggest weapons Putin now has the leverage to force those who have been playing both sides — the U.S. and Russia — against each other to choose sides.

All three of those players — France, Germany and Turkey– will be sending representatives to Sochi now while the U.S. sends weapons to Ukraine, harasses Russian fishermen and threatens more economic sanctions it is having an increasingly hard time enforcing.

This is a clear signal to everyone else that it’s time to sack-up and set things to right.

Jordan Cancels Key Part Of Historic Treaty With Israel, Refusing To Renew Land Annexes
Sun, 10/21/2018 - 17:55
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-21/jordan-cancels-key-part-peace-treaty-israel-refuses-renew-land-annexes

Jordan announced a bombshell on Sunday in relation to its peace treaty with Israel, stating it would not renew a 25-year lease of two tracts of territory along its border which is set for renewal on Thursday.

Under the 1994 historic treaty brokered under Bill Clinton, Israel retained private land ownership and special travel rights in Baquora — called Naharayim by the Israelis — in the northwestern part of the kingdom, and Ghumar — or Zofar in Hebrew — in the south. Part of the agreement signed at the White House in which Jordan became only the second Arab country after Egypt to make peace with Israel was that Jordan would lease sovereign Jordanian land to Israel.

But after sizable protests last Friday in Amman involving marchers demanding that Jordan reclaim full sovereignty over the territory, King Abdullah announced the cancellation of this part of the treaty, saying an official message has been relayed to Israel on the matter.

“Baqoura and Ghumar were at the top of our priorities,” King Abdullah tweeted via his official account. “Our decision is to terminate the Baquoura and Ghamar annexes from the peace treaty out of our keenness to take all decisions that would serve Jordan and Jordanians."

Both sites, which Israel had leased and utilized primarily for agriculture and considers key strategic security points, are located on the Jordan-Israel border. Israel is expected to attempt to retain lease rights to the land as strategic locations essential to its border security.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the news at a memorial for the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Sunday: "There is no doubt the agreement is an important asset," he said. He called the peace deals with Jordan and Egypt "anchors of regional stability."

King Abdullah has been under intense domestic pressure not to renew the lease deals — not only the face of the recent Amman protests, but as eighty-seven lawmakers in parliament have signed a petition demanding the restoration of Jordanian sovereignty over the lands. Relations between the two countries have been severely strained over the past years over an array of key issues from the status of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to lack of progress in Israeli-Palestinian talks to deep uncertainty over Trump administration offers of new peace talks.
Map via Haaretz

But the more immediate issue which has inflamed tensions on both sides of Israeli-Jordanian relations was the July 2017 shooting by an Israeli Embassy security guard in Amman of two Jordanian citizens. The shooting happened as one allegedly tried to attack the guard with a knife, while the other Jordanian was an innocent bystander who was shot in the ensuing chaos.

The whole event sparked a diplomatic crisis with Israel, which caused Israel to withdraw its embassy staff and ambassador. Israeli embassy operations resumed only after Israel paid a total of $5 million in compensation to the two families of the men killed.

Currently, there are dozens of Israeli farmers and their families living on the strips of land Jordan has said it will repossess when the treaty fails to be renewed on Thursday.

According to Haaretz:

"This announcement would mean a catastrophe for agriculture. It'll affect about 20-30 farmers and about 1,000 dunams that will be transferred to the Jordanians. It's a disaster for Zofar. As it is, the situation of agriculture is not great," Eyal Blum, the head of the Central Arava Regional Council, where Zofar is located, said in response.

The Israeli official further called in "inconceivable" that the territories would be given up by Israel: "The agricultural areas in the Zofar enclave are very significant for the security of the region, the state, for livelihoods and agriculture in the central Arava. It is inconceivable that after so many years, the world order will change. I call upon the prime minister of Israel to solve this crisis immediately," he said.

Many of the protesters in Amman in recent weeks have actually demanded a complete Jordanian pullout of the historic 1994 treaty signed at the White House. After the recent US recognition of Jerusalem as the official capitol of Israel, it is likely a swell of domestic anger in Jordan will only fuel the worsening of relations.

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世界のあちこちから少しずつ沸き上がるこの種の動きは何でしょうか？米国とイスラエルの傲慢さに対する自然な反応ではないでしょうか？

サウジ王室顧問サウード・アル・カフターニーは、トルコ側により殺害への関与をリークされたあと、サウジ国王は彼を解任したが、どうも彼は拘束されていなさそうである。

というのは、王室顧問から降格されたものの、きちんとしたポストを与えられ、彼のツイッターも続いているからである。現在は、サイバーセキュリティー、プログラミング、ドローンを扱うサウジ連盟の会長で、これは彼にとり前職でもある。

在イスタンブールのサウジ領事館がカショギ氏を拘束すると、アル・カフターニーはサウジからスカイプで参加し、汚い言葉でカショギ氏を罵倒し、部下に対して「犬の首を俺のところに持ってこい」と命じた。犬とは、アラブ世界で相手を侮蔑するときに用いる表現である。トルコは録音を持っている。

アル・カフターニーは、2017年にレバノンのアル・ハリーリー首相がリヤードで突然辞職を発表した事件にも直接関与している。ベイルートにいたアル・ハリーリーを、MBS皇太子との面会を理由に突然呼びつけた。しかし皇太子と面会する場は用意されておらず、代わりにアル・カフターニーが待っている部屋に案内された。アル・ハリーリーは、部屋に入ると殴られ、事前に用意されていた辞任表明の文書を読まされた。

サウジ国王は、カショギ事件を受け、総合情報部の改革を命じたが、その責任者に渦中のMBS皇太子を任命した。つまり国王は皇太子を守ろうとしている。

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How the man behind Khashoggi murder ran the killing via Skype
October 23 2018 09:31:00
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/how-the-man-behind-khashoggi-murder-ran-the-killing-via-skype-138168

He ran social media for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. He masterminded the arrest of hundreds of his country’s elite. He detained a Lebanese prime minister. And, according to two intelligence sources, he ran journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by giving orders over Skype.

Saud al-Qahtani, a top aide for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is one of the fall guys as Riyadh tries to stem international outrage at Khashoggi’s death. On Saturday, Saudi state media said King Salman had sacked Qahtani and four other officials over the killing carried out by a 15-man hit team.

But Qahtani’s influence in the crown prince’s entourage has been so vast over the past three years - his own rise tracking that of his boss - that it will be hard for Saudi officials to paint Qahtani as the mastermind of the murder without also raising questions about the involvement of Prince Mohammed, according to several sources with links to the royal court.

“This episode won’t topple MbS, but it has hit his image which will take a long time to be repaired if it ever does. The king is protecting him,” one of the sources with ties to the royal court said.

Qahtani himself once said he would never do anything without his boss’ approval.

“Do you think I make decisions without guidance? I am an employee and a faithful executor of the orders of my lord the king and my lord the faithful crown prince,” Qahtani tweeted last summer.

Qahtani did not respond to questions from Reuters. His biography on Twitter changed in recent days from royal adviser to chairman of the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones, a role he had held before.

Prince Mohammed had no knowledge of the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death and “certainly did not order a kidnapping or murder of anybody”, a Saudi official said on Saturday. Officials in Riyadh could not be reached for further comment.

As the crisis has grown over the past three weeks, Saudi Arabia has changed its tune on Khashoggi’s fate, first denying his death, then saying he died during a brawl at the consulate, and now attributing the death to a chokehold.

A senior Saudi official told Reuters that the killers had tried to cover up what happened, contending that the truth was only now emerging. The Turks reject that version of the story, saying they have audio recordings of what happened.

The kingdom has survived other crises in the past year, including the fallout of the crown prince’s short-lived kidnapping of Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri in 2017. Hariri, too, was verbally humiliated and beaten, according to eight Saudi, Arab and Western diplomatic sources. The man leading that interrogation: Saud al-Qahtani.

France intervened to free Hariri, but Western capitals did not take Riyadh to task for detaining a head of government - and Prince Mohammed emerged emboldened, according to these Saudi sources.

This time is different, with some Western capitals increasingly critical of the murder and the Saudi explanation.

Germany has announced it will stop arms sales, while Britain, France and Germany issued a joint statement asking for an “urgent … clarification of exactly what happened Oct 2.”

President Donald Trump has swung between saying he is unhappy with the Saudi investigation but also that he does not want to jeopardize U.S. arms sales to the country.

SKYPE CALL

To stem the fallout of the Khashoggi killing, the crown prince, commonly known by his initials MbS, allowed Qahtani to take the fall, according to one source close to the Saudi royal court.

A second senior Saudi official said Qahtani had been detained following his sacking by royal decree, but he continued to tweet afterwards. The sources with links to the royal court said he was not believed to be under arrest.

In the Khashoggi killing, Qahtani was present as he has been in other key moments of MbS’s administration. This time, though, his presence was virtual.

Khashoggi, a U.S.-based Saudi journalist often critical of Saudi Arabia and its leadership, walked into the Istanbul consulate at around 1 pm on Oct 2, to pick up some documents that would allow him to marry.

Turkish security sources say he was immediately seized inside the consulate by 15 Saudi intelligence operatives who had flown in on two jets just hours before.

According to one high-ranking Arab source with access to intelligence and links to members of Saudi Arabia’s royal court, Qahtani was beamed into a room of the Saudi consulate via Skype.

He began to hurl insults at Khashoggi over the phone. According to the Arab and Turkish sources, Khashoggi answered Qahtani’s insults with his own. But he was no match for the squad, which included top security and intelligence operatives, some with direct links to the royal court.

A Turkish intelligence source relayed that at one point Qahtani told his men to dispose of Khashoggi. “Bring me the head of the dog”, the Turkish intelligence source says Qahtani instructed.

Saudi journalist Khashoggi decapitated after fingers cut off: Reports
Saudi journalist Khashoggi decapitated after fingers cut off: ReportsSaudi journalist Khashoggi decapitated after fingers cut off: Reports

It is not clear if Qahtani watched the entire proceedings, which the high-ranking Arab source described as a “bungled and botched operation”.

The Arab source and the Turkish intelligence source said the audio of the Skype call is now in the possession of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan. The sources say he is refusing to release it to the Americans.

Erdoğan said on Sunday he would release information about the Turkish investigation during a weekly speech on Tuesday. Three Turkish officials reached by Reuters declined to comment ahead of that speech.

The senior Saudi official who laid out the official version of events – that Khashoggi had got into a fight – said he had not heard about Qahtani appearing via Skype, but that the Saudi investigation was ongoing.

QAHTANI’S RISE

Qahtani, 40, has earned a reputation at home as both a violent enforcer of princely whims and as a strident nationalist. In blogs and on social media, some liberal Saudi journalists and activists dubbed him the Saudi Steve Bannon for his aggressive manipulation of the news media and behind-the-scenes strategizing.

Qahtani wrote odes on Twitter to the royal family under the pen name Dari, which means predator in Arabic. Some of his opponents on social media call him Dalim, a figure in Arabic folklore who rose from being a lowly servant to much greater heights.

According to his biography on his Twitter account, Qahtani studied law and made the rank of captain in the Saudi air force. After launching a blog, he caught the eye of Khaled al-Tuwaijri, the former head of the royal court, who hired him in the early 2000s to run an electronic media army tasked with protecting Saudi Arabia’s image , according to a source with ties to the royal court.

Tuwaijri is under house arrest and could not be reached for comment.

Qahtani rose to further prominence after latching onto Prince Mohammed, who was part of his father Salman’s court as Riyadh governor, then crown prince and finally king in 2015

Tasked with countering alleged Qatari influence on social media, Qahtani used Twitter to attack criticism of the kingdom in general and Prince Mohammed in particular. He also ran a WhatsApp group with local newspaper editors and prominent journalists, dictating the royal court’s line.

When Riyadh led an economic boycott against Qatar in June 2017, Qahtani ramped up his attacks on the small Gulf state. Online, he urged Saudis to tweet the names of anyone showing sympathy with Qatar under the Arabic hashtag “The Black List”.

The high-ranking Arab official and Saudi sources with ties to the royal court said Qahtani was MbS’s “bad cop” late last year when 200 people, including Saudi princes, ministers and business tycoons, were detained and put under house arrest at the Ritz Carlton in an anti-corruption sweep. Qahtani oversaw some of the interrogations, the Arab official said.

A KIDNAPPING

The extent of Qahtani’s power is perhaps best illustrated by the kidnapping of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri last year, several of the Saudi and Arab diplomatic sources said.

The Saudis were incensed at the inability of Hariri, a Sunni Muslim and a Saudi client, to stand up to their regional rival Iran and Hezbollah, the Shi’ite paramilitary movement that acts as Tehran’s spearhead in the region. Hariri belonged to the same multi-party coalition government as Hezbollah.

The Saudis were particularly dismayed that Hariri had failed to deliver a message to a top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to stop interfering in Lebanon and Yemen. Hariri claimed he had delivered the Saudi message, but an informer, planted by Qahtani in Hariri’s circle, gave the Saudis the minutes of the meeting which showed that he had not done so.

The Saudis lured Hariri to Riyadh for a meeting with MbS. Upon his arrival on Nov. 3, 2017, there was no line-up of Saudi princes or officials, as would typically greet a prime minister on an official visit. Hariri later received a call that the meeting with the crown prince would take place the next day at a royal compound.

When Hariri arrived, he was ushered into a room where Qahtani was waiting for him with a security team, according to three Arab sources familiar with the incident. The security team beat Hariri; Qahtani cursed at him and then forced him to resign as prime minister in a statement that was broadcast by a Saudi-owned TV channel.

“He (Qahtani) told him you have no choice but to resign and read this statement,” said one of the sources. “Qahtani oversaw the interrogation and ill-treatment of Hariri.”

Another source said it was the intervention of French President Emmanuel Macron that secured his release following an international outcry.

Macron claimed credit in May for ending the crisis, saying an unscheduled stopover in Riyadh to convince MbS, followed by an invitation to Hariri to come to France, had been the catalyst to resolving it. Lebanese officials confirmed to Reuters that Macron’s quick intervention secured Hariri’s return.

Saudi officials could not be reached for comment about the sequence of events or Qahtani’s involvement. French officials declined to comment when asked about Qahtani’s role.

AN OFFER TO RETURN HOME

At least three friends of Khashoggi told Reuters that in the months after the journalist moved to Washington a year ago he received multiple phone calls from MbS’s right-hand man urging him to return to Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi had balked, they said, fearing reprisals for his Washington Post columns and outspoken views.

Qahtani had tried to reassure the former newspaper editor that he was still well respected and had offered the journalist a job as a consultant at the royal court, the friends said.

Khashoggi said that while he found Qahtani gentle and polite during those conversations, he did not trust him, one close friend told Reuters. “Jamal told me afterwards, ‘he thinks that I will go back so that he can throw me in jail?”

The second senior Saudi official confirmed that Qahtani had spoken to Khashoggi about returning home. The ambush in Istanbul seems to have been another way to get him home.

How much did the crown prince know about his trusted aide’s plan to abduct Khashoggi?

Most of the 15 hit-man team identified by Turkish and Saudi authorities worked for the kingdom’s security and intelligence services, military, government ministries, royal court security and air force. One of them, General Maher Mutreb, a senior intelligence officer, who is part of the security team of Prince Mohammed, appeared in photographs with him on official visits earlier this year to the United States and Europe.

The high-ranking Arab official and the Turkish intelligence source said it was Mutreb’s phone that was used to dial in Qahtani while Khashoggi was being interrogated.

Reuters tried to contact members of 15-man team but their phones were either switched off, on voicemail or no longer in service.

The Saudi official said Deputy Intelligence Chief General Ahmed al-Asiri put together the 15-man squad from the intelligence and security forces. Asiri was one of the five officials dismissed on Saturday.

Another key figure was Dr. Salah al-Tubaigy, a forensic expert specialized in autopsies attached to the Saudi Ministry of Interior. His presence – equipped with a bone-saw Turkish sources say was used to dismember the journalist – is hard to explain in an operation Saudi officials now say was aimed at persuading Khashoggi to return home.

It is hard to imagine that the crown prince could have not known about such a delicate operation, the Saudi sources with ties to the royal court say.

The Saudi official who spoke on Saturday said an existing standing order provided authorization to “negotiate” with dissidents to return home without requiring approval, but that the team involved with Khashoggi exceeded that authorization.

Another Saudi official close to the investigation said that Qahtani decided on his own to organize Khashoggi’s kidnapping and that he asked Asiri to get a team together, but that their plans had gone wrong.

Qahtani’s final act may be to serve his boss by assuming the responsibility for the crisis that has hit Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi’s murder. The Saudi king has sacked Qahtani and ordered a restructuring of the general intelligence agency.

To head it, he named MbS.

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国王と皇太子が遺族に弔意＝サウジ記者死亡
10/22(月) 15:55配信
時事通信
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20181022-00000057-jij-m_est

　【カイロ時事】サウジアラビアのサルマン国王とムハンマド皇太子は、トルコにあるサウジ総領事館で死亡した著名記者ジャマル・カショギ氏の遺族に電話し、弔意を示した。

　国営通信が22日伝えた。遺族は謝意を述べたという。

　カショギ氏はサウジ人容疑者に計画的に殺害されたとの見方が強まっているが、サウジ検察は「口論と殴り合いの末に死亡した」と発表し、意図的な殺害の疑惑を否定している。サウジでほぼ全権を掌握するムハンマド皇太子の事件関与の有無に注目が集まる中で、哀悼の意を表することで王室への疑惑の目をそらす狙いもあるとみられる。