By: Kayhan Int’l
The high profile visit to Tehran by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first by a Japanese Chief Executive after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, though a normal diplomatic call between two important world countries, has aroused media speculation.
Reports are rife that he is either carrying a message for Iran on renegotiation of the JCPOA nuclear deal from the roguish US president, Donald Trump, with whom he had a lengthy telephonic conversation the other day, or has undertaken by himself an unenvious mission to mediate between Tehran and Washington for defusing the current crisis, since Japan has been forced by the Americans to cut its important source of crude oil supplies from the Islamic Republic.
Official circles in Tokyo have dismissed both the speculations because of the little leverage Japan, which is not a party to the JCPOA, has with the antagonists, especially in view of Iran’s firm position of "NO TALKS” with the US for having breached the 7-party international accord and launched economic terrorism against the Islamic Republic, although they have not ruled out the possibility of exchange of views between Abe and the Iranian leaders, among other topics, in this regard.
Moreover, Shinzo Abe is neither visiting Iran for the first time nor is he a stranger to the principled stances of the Islamic Republic concerning its inalienable rights, which can no account be compromised.
As Prime Minister of Japan he has had occasional encounters with President Hassan Rouhani at international forums to discuss improvement of bilateral relations.
What is, however, important for him are fond memories of his meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, 36 years ago in 1983 in Tehran as a 27-year old secretary to his father, Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, who accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati, had held talks with the then President Khamenei.
Shintaro Abe had come to Iran to try to mediate a ceasefire in the war imposed on Iran by the US through Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, and was courteously told that "an imposed peace is worse than an imposed war”, unless the aggressor withdraws from all occupied Iranian territories.
The course of the 8-year war is irrelevant here, but what is of significance is the principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding its rights and toward those who roguishly indulge in enmity and hostile behaviour towards the Iranian people.
Of course, in his scheduled meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, which might also be attended by Dr. Velayati, the Japanese Prime Minister will definitely recall the privilege of his first encounter over three decades ago, and will be further enlightened on Iran’s right to defend all its achievements, in addition to having some lively discussions on development of bilateral ties and eco-industrial issues, since Shinzo Abe is known internationally for his government’s economic policies, nicknamed Abenomics, which pursue monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms.
A scion of a distinguished Japanese political family on both his father’s and mother’s sides, Abe identifies himself as "rightwing nationalist”, who resents the label of "war criminal” for his maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, whom the American occupiers had jailed as a member of the wartime Tojo Cabinet after World War 2, but who upon release eventually served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960.
As great-great-grandson of Viscount Yoshimasa Oshima who served as General in the Imperial Japanese Army, the pragmatic Abe, despite his diplomatic ties with the quixotic Trump, cannot at heart accept as overlords, the barbaric Americans for their mass massacre of the Japanese during World War 2, including the criminal dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In his meetings in Iran, US state terrorism, including against Japan, is sure to come up, with reiteration by both sides that American hooliganism is obstructing regional and international peace, and on no account will the Islamic Republic tolerate the presence of the CENTCOM terrorists in the neighbourhood.
Iran and Japan, as respectable members of the world community of nations, should build their ties on the mutual interests of the two countries in fields, including trade, science, technology, economy and politics, without bowing to outside and extra-territorial pressures.
Let us hope that Tokyo, which is among the prime victims of US state terrorism, will have the courage to cultivate ties with Tehran on the basis of mutual respect, and away from Washington’s criminal shadows.
The high profile visit to Tehran by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the first by a Japanese Chief Executive after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, though a normal diplomatic call between two important world countries, has aroused media speculation.
Reports are rife that he is either carrying a message for Iran on renegotiation of the JCPOA nuclear deal from the roguish US president, Donald Trump, with whom he had a lengthy telephonic conversation the other day, or has undertaken by himself an unenvious mission to mediate between Tehran and Washington for defusing the current crisis, since Japan has been forced by the Americans to cut its important source of crude oil supplies from the Islamic Republic.
Official circles in Tokyo have dismissed both the speculations because of the little leverage Japan, which is not a party to the JCPOA, has with the antagonists, especially in view of Iran’s firm position of "NO TALKS” with the US for having breached the 7-party international accord and launched economic terrorism against the Islamic Republic, although they have not ruled out the possibility of exchange of views between Abe and the Iranian leaders, among other topics, in this regard.
Moreover, Shinzo Abe is neither visiting Iran for the first time nor is he a stranger to the principled stances of the Islamic Republic concerning its inalienable rights, which can no account be compromised.
As Prime Minister of Japan he has had occasional encounters with President Hassan Rouhani at international forums to discuss improvement of bilateral relations.
What is, however, important for him are fond memories of his meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, 36 years ago in 1983 in Tehran as a 27-year old secretary to his father, Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe, who accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Dr. Ali Akbar Velayati, had held talks with the then President Khamenei.
Shintaro Abe had come to Iran to try to mediate a ceasefire in the war imposed on Iran by the US through Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, and was courteously told that "an imposed peace is worse than an imposed war”, unless the aggressor withdraws from all occupied Iranian territories.
The course of the 8-year war is irrelevant here, but what is of significance is the principled policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding its rights and toward those who roguishly indulge in enmity and hostile behaviour towards the Iranian people.
Of course, in his scheduled meeting with the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, which might also be attended by Dr. Velayati, the Japanese Prime Minister will definitely recall the privilege of his first encounter over three decades ago, and will be further enlightened on Iran’s right to defend all its achievements, in addition to having some lively discussions on development of bilateral ties and eco-industrial issues, since Shinzo Abe is known internationally for his government’s economic policies, nicknamed Abenomics, which pursue monetary easing, fiscal stimulus, and structural reforms.
A scion of a distinguished Japanese political family on both his father’s and mother’s sides, Abe identifies himself as "rightwing nationalist”, who resents the label of "war criminal” for his maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi, whom the American occupiers had jailed as a member of the wartime Tojo Cabinet after World War 2, but who upon release eventually served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960.
As great-great-grandson of Viscount Yoshimasa Oshima who served as General in the Imperial Japanese Army, the pragmatic Abe, despite his diplomatic ties with the quixotic Trump, cannot at heart accept as overlords, the barbaric Americans for their mass massacre of the Japanese during World War 2, including the criminal dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
In his meetings in Iran, US state terrorism, including against Japan, is sure to come up, with reiteration by both sides that American hooliganism is obstructing regional and international peace, and on no account will the Islamic Republic tolerate the presence of the CENTCOM terrorists in the neighbourhood.
Iran and Japan, as respectable members of the world community of nations, should build their ties on the mutual interests of the two countries in fields, including trade, science, technology, economy and politics, without bowing to outside and extra-territorial pressures.
Let us hope that Tokyo, which is among the prime victims of US state terrorism, will have the courage to cultivate ties with Tehran on the basis of mutual respect, and away from Washington’s criminal shadows.
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