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Japan PM to visit Iran at appropriate time: Diplomat

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has not cancelled his scheduled visit to Iran and will travel to Tehran at an “appropriate time,” an informed source at Iran’s Embassy in Tokyo says.

On Monday, Japanese Kyodo News Agency quoted government sources as saying that the premier had canceled a trip to Iran reportedly scheduled to take place in late August, adding that Abe will wait until after the US presidential election in November to decide if he will visit Tehran.

“Shinzo Abe’s trip to the Islamic Republic of Iran is still on the agenda and will take place at an appropriate time given growing trend of bilateral cooperation,” the Iranian official said on Tuesday.

He added that the reported date of the visit - late August - had been merely media speculation and noted that no official Japanese organization has yet announced an exact date.  

The Nikkei newspaper reported on March 7 that Japan has informed Iran of Prime Minister Abe’s plan to visit the Middle Eastern country in late August.

Abe would be the first Japanese prime minister to visit the Islamic Republic in 38 years since Takeo Fukuda traveled to Iran in September 1978.

During his visit to Tehran, the Japanese premier would hold talks with senior Iranian officials possibly about ways to improve economic and political relations following January 16 implementation of last year’s nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany reached the JCPOA on July 14, 2015.

Under the nuclear agreement, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US would be lifted. Iran has, in return, put some limitations on its nuclear activities.


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