Iran’s foreign minister in first high-level visit to Japan since 2019

TOKYO, Aug 07 (Al Jazeera) - Iran’s foreign minister has met with top officials in Japan in the first such high-level visit in more than three years.

Hossein Amirabdollahian sat down with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Monday after holding meetings with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Health, Labour and Welfare Minister Katsunobu Kato.

The last time a top Iranian diplomat visited Japan was in December 2019, one year after the United States unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal and reinstated wide-ranging sanctions on Iran.

Japan raised the issue of Iran’s alleged provision of armed drones to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine, but Amirabdollahian reiterated Iranian denials that it was supplying Russia.

Japan, which holds this year’s presidency of the Group of Seven nations, has been maintaining economic sanctions on Russia over the war as part of the G7.

Iran has been heavily criticised and targeted by sanctions by the US, European Union and United Kingdom for providing drones to Russia. ...continue reading

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