Arab News Japan

TOKYO: A Japanese expert in Middle East affairs has called for “strong condemnation” of US President Donald Trump’s statements suggesting that the US could “take over” Gaza and expel its Palestinian people.

Commenting on the US president’s statements, TANAKA Koichiro, a professor at Keio University and an expert on the Middle East, called such a suggestion an “illegal act that should be strongly condemned.”

He told Arab News Japan that China and Russia could exploit Trump’s statements to impose a unilateral change to the status quo of countries’ borders and sovereignty using force, something the Japanese government rejects.

Tanaka said, “such acts using military force are no longer accepted in the current world.” International organizations – including ones that Japan is a member of – and Japan has stood against the annexation of countries or territories by force, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Japan has been demanding the return of four islands in northern Japan that have been “occupied” by Russia since the end of World War II.

Japan also has territorial disputes with Korea over an island that Tokyo calls Takeshima and with China over islands it calls Senkaku.