Tempered hopes for US-Iran breakthrough as Japan’s Abe travels to Iran
Though President Donald Trump has encouraged the visit, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has limited room to maneuver as he visits Iran this week to try to advance US-Iran dialogue.
WASHINGTON — When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe makes a historic visit to Iran this week, he will do so with a rare nod from US President Donald Trump to see if he can facilitate US-Iranian dialogue to ease tensions. But with the Trump administration doubling down on its maximum pressure campaign and Iran insisting on a US return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal before any new US-Iran talks, Abe has narrow room for maneuver.
“With regards to what Abe intends to achieve, it would depend on how far he is willing to carry the burden on his shoulders,” Koichiro Tanaka, the president of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, and a former Japanese Foreign Ministry official who worked on Iran, told Al-Monitor by email. “If he is trying to defuse some amount of tension, that could be achievable, knowing that it would be a short-lived one.”
“If he ventures to salvage the nuclear deal, or even start facilitating dialogue between Tehran and Washington, then Abe will have to show, to the Iranian leadership beforehand, that he is not a mere messenger, or a puppet of Trump,” Tanaka said.
Trump, speaking in Japan last month, expressed encouragement for Abe’s visit to Iran, the first by a Japanese premier in 40 years. Trump suggested he was looking to Abe, an occasional Trump golf partner, to convey his offer for face-to-face talks directly to Iranian leaders.
