TEHRAN – Chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has said the upcoming visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Tehran is primarily aimed at boosting bilateral relations.

“The trip is aimed to boost bilateral relations. However, Japan has brought up the topic of mediation but has not offered any plan for mediating between Iran and the U.S.,” Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Monday, ISNA reported.

A member of the committee also made similar remarks, saying Abe’s trip is not aimed at playing a mediatory role between Iran and the United States.

“The aim of the visit is to expand bilateral relations,” Alaeddin Boroujerdi told Mehr news agency on Monday. “In the years that followed the [Islamic] Revolution, Iran and Japan have enjoyed good relations.”

There is a speculation that the Japanese premier’s visit to Tehran is aimed at playing a mediatory role between Iran and the U.S., Boroujerdi said. “These are merely speculations and are not true.”

The senior MP, however, did not rule out that the topic would be brought up in Abe’s meetings in Tehran.

He also referred to the telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Japanese PM ahead of Abe’s visit to Tehran, saying Japan is an independent country and will not change its policies after a phone conversation with the Zionist regime.

According to Boroujerdi, Israel is afraid of Japan’s cooperation with Iran and therefore is making efforts to undermine this development.

Netanyahu thinks that he can deter the Japanese PM from cooperating with Iran by mentioning out his regime’s redlines in the region, he stated.

Boroujerdi, a veteran lawmaker, said all U.S. pressures against the Islamic Republic are aimed at changing Tehran’s regional policies and undermining its missile power, adding some of the measures of the Trump administration have been adopted due to pressures from the Zionists.

Russia, China and India have continued their cooperation with Iran despite U.S. pressures and the Israeli regime is afraid that Japan would join them, said Boroujerdi, who led the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for many years.

“And more than that, the Zionists are afraid that these tensions would ultimately lead to the normalization of ties between Iran and U.S.; but of course this is not possible because we will not talk and interact with them (Americans) due to their violation of international rules.”

Abe will visit Tehran on June 12-14. The visit will be the first by an incumbent Japanese prime minister since 1978.

Abe plans to meet with President Hassan Rouhani on June 12 and Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on June 13.

MH/PA