Iranian foreign minister visits Japan to discuss frozen funds, nuclear program, Russia-Ukraine war

Asia-Pacific, Middle East, News August 8, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian arrived in Tokyo on August 7, 2023, to meet his Japanese counterpart and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. During the bilateral meetings, Japan expressed concerns over Iran’s advancements in nuclear enrichment as well as Tehran’s military support to Russia.

It is the first time that Iran’s top diplomat has arrived in Japan since 2019. During his visit to Tokyo, Amirabdollahian met with top officials including his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Japan’s Health, Labor, and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato.

Amirabdollahian and Hayashi hailed the opportunity to have face-to-face talks in Tokyo. “I am grateful for having this opportunity of exchange of opinions” over bilateral, regional, and international issues including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Iranian diplomat said.

Ahead of his meeting with Hayashi, the Iranian Foreign Minister said that his country does not “pick a side in any war” as he denied the allegation of providing weapons to Russia. He said that Iran “has never provided drones to any country for use in Ukraine.”

The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a statement after the high-level meeting saying that Hayashi “requested Iran to take constructive measures, repeating Japan’s position on Russia’s invasion into Ukraine”. The statement also said that Hayashi had expressed concern about Iran’s nuclear activities and urged cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

*^{Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, right, and Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, left, speak during their meeting on August 7, 2023, in Tokyo. (Image Credit: AP/Eugene Hoshiko)}*

The statement highlighted that Japan’s Foreign Minister Hayashi and Iran’s Foreign Minister Amirabdollahian also “exchanged views on the situation in the Middle East and concurred on continuing close communication.”

Japan has been playing a major role in reestablishing the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and six major powers, including the United States, Russia, and China. The Iran nuclear deal crashed in 2018 after former U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the deal and restored crushing sanctions on Tehran.

Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister

During his visit to Tokyo, Amirabdollahian met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and discussed bilateral cooperation between Iran and Japan as well as the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal.

“As a supporter of the Iran nuclear deal, Japan is seriously concerned about the expansion of Iran’s nuclear-related activities and requested full and unconditional cooperation in the joint statement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” Kishida said in a statement released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

^{Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Amir Abdollahian with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa on August 7, 2023. (Image Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan)}

The resource-poor Japan used to be one of the largest importers of Iranian oil, but the volumes dropped sharply after its close ally and security partner, Washington, imposed economic sanctions on Iran and pulled out of the nuclear deal.

By encouraging Iran and other parties to re-establish the 2015 nuclear pact, Tokyo is seeking its way back into starting the imports of cheap Iranian energy products.

Iran’s frozen funds

A day before Amirabdollahian embarked on his journey to the Asian country, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said that the Foreign Minister would also discuss Iran’s frozen funds. “We will continue to follow up on the issue of unfreezing Iranian funds held in various countries, as we did before,” Kanaani said in a statement.

Iran has billions of dollars frozen in foreign banks as Tehran cannot access because of U.S. sanctions. The funds, which are largely made up of Iran’s oil exports, are frozen in different banks across China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Iraq. The readout of the meetings between Iranian and Japanese foreign ministers, however, did not mention any talks about Iran’s frozen funds.