野党、自衛隊派遣の中止要求　中東緊迫で、与党内にも懸念の声

　イラクにある米軍の駐留基地へのイランによるミサイル攻撃を受け、主要野党は中東への海上自衛隊派遣の中止を政府に迫ることを決めた。カジノを含む統合型リゾート（ＩＲ）に絡む汚職事件に続く攻撃材料とみて、２０日召集予定の通常国会などで追及する方針だ。報復の連鎖が続けばさらなる緊迫化は必至で、与党内からも自衛隊派遣に懸念を示す声が出始めた。
　立憲民主党など主要野党は８日、国会内で国対委員長会談を開き、中東への海自派遣を決めた閣議決定の撤回を求めることで一致。会談後、立憲の安住淳国対委員長は記者団に「日本の（中東外交における）中立的スタンスを逸脱している。安倍晋三首相の判断は間違っている」と語った。（2020/01/08-19:24）

Major Japanese opposition parties on Wednesday agreed to press the government to cancel its plan to dispatch Maritime Self-Defense Force units to the Middle East, following Iranian missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq on the day.
   Some in the ruling bloc have also started to express concern over the MSDF mission, which is intended to gather information to ensure sea lane safety in the region, as tensions are expected to escalate further if the United States and Iran engage in a cycle of retaliation. The missile attack followed the U.S. airstrike last week that killed a key commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
   At a meeting on Wednesday, the parliamentary affairs chiefs of major opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, agreed that they will call on the government to withdraw the Dec. 27, 2019, cabinet decision on the MSDF deployment.
   "The planned dispatch deviates from Japan's neutral stance (in its Middle East diplomacy)," CDPJ parliamentary affairs chief Jun Azumi told reporters after the meeting. "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision (on the MSDF dispatch) is wrong."
   "We can't expose Self-Defense Forces members to danger based on such vague legal grounds as 'survey and research,'" Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki said at a press conference, referring to the Defense Ministry establishment law's Article 4, which is used by the government as the basis for the mission. "We are against the deployment."