President Urges Japan to Help Rein in U.S.
IRAN NEWS Political DESK
TEHRAN- President Hassan Rouhani has paid a landmark visit to Japan, calling on the country to help confront the United States’ bid to wreck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
Rouhani became the first Iranian president to visit Japan since 2000 when he landed in Tokyo Friday, his overnight stay seen as the international outreach to the important Middle Eastern country despite US efforts to isolate it.
The Iranian president inspected a guard of honor along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the latter’s central Tokyo office before summit talks and a dinner scheduled to last into Friday evening.
Despite being a military ally of the U.S., Japan has traditionally maintained friendly relations with Iran as a major source of energy. In 2017, Iran supplied 5.2 percent of Japan’s crude oil imports.
Iran’s oil exports, however, have been disrupted by unilateral American sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“The nuclear deal is an extremely important agreement, and we strongly condemn the U.S. withdrawal, which was one-sided and irrational,” Rouhani said in the meeting with Abe on Friday.
“We hope that Japan and other countries in the world will make efforts toward maintaining the agreement,” the Iranian president added.
President Rouhani has said that the purpose of his visit to Japan is to discuss the security of the Middle East and calming tensions in the Persian Gulf.
Abe plans to dispatch a Self-Defense Force destroyer and patrol plane to the Middle East. He is expected to explain the dispatch plan to Rouhani to seek a green light from Iran for the operation, Japan Times said.
Abe reportedly plans to send the SDF unit an “independent” mission for “research and investigation,” to the sea off Oman and Yemen and its surrounding areas, not including the Strait of Hormuz off the Iranian coast.
“Japan would like to do its utmost to ease tensions and stabilize the situation in the Middle East,” Abe told Rouhani Friday.
The Japanese prime minister, instead, wants Iran to remain committed to the JCPOA despite the U.S. withdrawal.
“I strongly expect that Iran will fully comply with the nuclear agreement and play a constructive role for peace and stability in the region,” Abe said.
“Japan would like to do its utmost to ease tensions and stabilize the situation in the Middle East,” Abe told Rouhani at the start of a meeting between the two leaders in Tokyo.
