With Trump Blessing, Japan's Abe Seeks to Mend Iran Bridges
With Trump's Blessing, Japan's Abe Looks to Mend Ties With Iran
(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a rare friend of both Donald Trump and Iran’s leaders, urged Tehran on Wednesday to avoid conflict at all costs and pledged to do his utmost to ease tensions that have threatened to plunge the Middle East into renewed chaos.
Abe’s visit, the first by a sitting premier in the 40-year history of the Islamic Republic, comes as the U.S. shows little sign of easing sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a 2015 accord meant to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb.
Tensions have spiked in the Gulf since the U.S. halted sanctions waivers early last month that had allowed some major importers, including Japan, to continue buying Iranian oil.
Speaking in televised remarks with Abe at his side, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Japan was keen to keep buying Iranian crude, though it wasn’t clear from the comments whether it would be able to do so in the face of U.S. sanctions.
Abe did not refer to Japanese oil purchases but said Iran should work constructively to ease tensions in a region vital to the global economy.
“Middle Eastern peace and stability is essential not only for this region, but for the prosperity of the world. Nobody wants war. Japan wants to do all it can to relieve tensions,” Abe said. “The road so far has been long. But I am determined that the road from now will be wide and have a beautiful view. To that end, both sides must make efforts and great patience will be required. ”
With the U.S. and Iran so far apart, any step that helps reduces mistrust and hostility would be a welcome achievement for Abe, seen more as a stable hand running the world’s third-largest economy than a globe-trotting peace negotiator. Trump sanctioned his trip, which also includes talks with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Abe’s meeting with Rouhani went on longer than expected, with their televised remarks delayed by well over an hour and both men striking a positive tone.
“What Abe can do depends on what Trump has given Abe,” said Kazuo Takahashi, professor of International Politics at the Open University of Japan, who specializes in Japanese policy toward Iran. “If he’s going as a messenger boy, he’s shaming himself in front of the world’s public opinion. I don’t think he’d take such a political risk without some ideas of inducement for the Iranians offered by the Americans.”
Abe, who spoke to Trump by telephone ahead of his trip, told reporters before boarding his plane to Tehran that he planned to have a frank exchange with Iran’s leader.
A missile attack on a Saudi Arabian airport by Tehran-backed Yemeni rebels ratcheted up tensions in the Gulf just as Abe’s efforts got underway. The region has been churning since Washington piled more sanctions on Iran in May and unleashed a show of military force, sending an aircraft carrier to the region. Those moves drew a threat from Iran to retreat from the nuclear deal.
Abe said he strongly expected Iran to abide by the nuclear deal, echoing comments made by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas who visited Tehran earlier in the week as high-stakes diplomacy to avert escalation kicks into gear.
The Japanese leader wades into the fray as the Trump administration appears ready to add new sanctions, this time against the economic lifeline Iran and European leaders created to allow trade to continue with European countries that have remained in the accord.
For Japan, there is an economic incentive to prevent tensions in the Gulf from spiraling out of control. It relies heavily on Middle Eastern energy, and before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the bulk of those supplies came from Iran.
But as U.S.-Iran relations deteriorated over the years, Japan significantly reduced crude imports from Iran in favor of supplies from its Gulf rivals Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait -- all allies of Washington.
With Saudi Arabia saying last month there were attacks on its oil tankers and Iran threatening to disrupt traffic in the Gulf should Washington succeed in wiping out its oil sales, maintaining stability is of paramount importance to Japan.
Family Affair
Abe’s father, former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, also tried his hand -- unsuccessfully -- at defusing Middle East tensions with a visit to Iran in 1983. He met then-President Khamenei, who would eventually be promoted to the mantle of the Supreme Leader. Abe accompanied him on that trip and mentioned it in his remarks.
“Politically, we never had a huge issue with the Iranian government, neither pre- nor post the revolutionary period in Iran. Our economic ties have been stranded, I would say, because of pressure from Washington,” said Koichiro Tanaka, president of the Japanese Institute of Middle East Economies in Tokyo.
--With assistance from Tsuyoshi Inajima and Takashi Hirokawa.
To contact the reporters on this story: Golnar Motevalli in Tehran at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net;Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net;Ladane Nasseri in Dubai at lnasseri@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net;Daniel Ten Kate at dtenkate@bloomberg.net
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