quagmire 復習
国連は9日中東イエメンがサウジアラビア南部ジザンへ向けて攻撃をしたことを受け、国連スタッフをイエメンから撤退させると発表しました。
The United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross withdrew their staff members from the besieged Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah, fearing that an attack by forces led by the United Arab Emirates was imminent, officials said Monday.
Frantic diplomacy to stave off an attack on the city of 600,000 people and avert a potential humanitarian disaster moved to the United Nations on Monday, where the Security Council held a closed-door briefing on the situation.
“We are, at the present moment, in intense consultation,” the United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said Monday. “There is a lull in the fighting to allow for them, and I hope that it will be possible to avoid a battle for Hudaydah.”
In Washington, bipartisan efforts were underway in the Senate to warn the Emirates and its ally in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, that a military assault on Al Hudaydah could result in the United States cutting off funding for aerial refueling, which has been crucial to the Saudi air campaign there.
(中略)
American officials have warned the Emirati and Saudi governments that an offensive there would result in a quagmire.
But the Arab-led coalition and the American military say the rebels have been smuggling arms through Al Hudaydah, including missiles that the Houthis have used to attack Saudi Arabia.
Part of the Emirati calculation appears to be the desire to strike a huge blow against the Houthis, which the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia consider a proxy for their regional nemesis, Iran. That coalition has long sought to seize the city and deny the Houthis a vital piece of territory, while giving the Arab nations an upper hand in peace negotiations.
quagmire /kwǽgmàiər/ に注目しました。『ジーニアス英和辞典第5版』(大修館) によると「沼地、泥沼、湿地」といった意味があります。また a quagmire で「苦境、窮地」という意味を伴うとありました。次に『ケンブリッジ英英辞典』みてみると “an area of soft, wet ground that you sink into if you try to walk on it” または “a difficult and dangerous situation” とあり、 泥濘んだ場所自体を指したり泥沼のように苦しい境遇を表していると窺えます。
quagmire は「足の下で沈む、低地の柔らかく湿った地域の」いった意味のある形容詞 “quag” と「泥沼、泥濘み」という意味を持つ “mire” から成る造語であることがわかりました。
この攻撃は民間人を狙うために意図的に行われたものであるという考えを示すサウジアラビアのマリキ報道官は、「サウジアラビアと国民の安全を脅かす者には鉄の拳を見せつける」と述べたそうです。(Happidra)
