Tokyo: A report by Japanese officials, the Iranian foreign minister travelled to Japan on Monday for the first time since 2019 to meet with his counterpart, with a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also reportedly planned.
Although the purpose of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian's unusual trip to a G7 member state was not made public, rumours suggested that Japan would put pressure on Iran to stop arming Russia.
According to a statement from the Japanese foreign ministry, Amir-Abdollahian will meet with Yoshimasa Hayashi.
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Additionally, Amir-Abdollahian would pay Kishida a polite visit, according to TBS, a private broadcaster.
Unnamed government sources told TBS that Japan would bring up the issue of Russian arms exports.
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Despite Washington's tense relations with Tehran, a crucial ally of Tokyo, Tehran and Japan have historically maintained cordial relations.
Due to US economic sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation, Iran used to be a significant oil exporter to resource-scarce Japan, but volumes have dramatically decreased in recent years.
The most recent phone conversation between Hayashi and Amir-Abdollahian took place in April of this year.
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In the April talks, Hayashi reaffirmed Japan's support for the 2015 nuclear agreement and urged Iran to work with the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The trip by Amir-Abdollahian to Japan, which is currently leading the G7, marks the first by a senior Iranian diplomat since December 2019 and the first while President Ebrahim Raisi was in office.
The 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six major powers, including Russia and China, was designed to curtail Iran's nuclear-related activities in order to allay concerns that it was working on nuclear weapons.
But while Tehran has increased its nuclear work, the United States left the agreement under former president Donald Trump, and attempts to resurrect it under President Joe Biden have failed