Japan, Germany, to try to ease tensions between Iran and the US

Tabnak – As tensions between Iran and the United States have been on the rise over the past several weeks, several countries have expressed willingness to act as a mediator between the Tehran and Washington. Japan and Germany are the latest ones to join the potential mediators.

Japanese media have reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will seek to lower heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington during an upcoming official visit to Iran.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency said the Tokyo government outlined Abe’s plan for the Iran trip at a meeting with a parliamentary committee on Thursday. According to the report, Abe will visit Tehran on June 12-14.

Meanwhile, an unnamed Japanese government official told AFP on Thursday that Tokyo was “still arranging details, including whom our prime minister will meet” during his upcoming trip to Tehran.

Other government officials also said Abe hopes to hold talks with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Abe will become the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit Iran in more than four decades as Tehran and Japan “celebrate their 90th year of diplomatic relations,” according to Kyodo.

Kyodo also said Abe will seek to mediate between the United States and Iran and encourage dialogue between them in a bid to ease the tensions. The plan for Abe’s Tehran visit was first reported last month.

Commenting on those reports during a visit to Tokyo in May, US President Donald Trump said, “The prime minister (Abe) and Japan have very good relationship with Iran so we’ll see what happens.”

Meanwhile, Germany’s Foreign Ministry says the country’s top diplomat Heiko Maas is to travel to Tehran next week to address ways to save the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers.

The ministry spokeswoman, Maria Adebahr, made the announcement during a news conference in Berlin on Thursday, adding that Maas will be in Tehran on Monday and he plans to meet his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javad Zarif.

The German spokesperson said that the trip has been agreed and coordinated with Britain and France, who have both supported the JCPOA. Maas has also discussed the trip with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a recent visit to Berlin, Adebahr said.

The US’s recent deployment of an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles to the Middle East has raised fears that the Trump administration was contemplating military aggression against Iran.

Later that month, however, Trump toned down his highly belligerent rhetoric against Iran and repeated, on several occasions, an offer of talks to Tehran.

Iran has said it would not initiate any conflict with any party, but would defend itself against any aggression.