Too early to judge Abe's achievement; Japanese analysis
Momoyo Kondo, a research fellow at the Middle East Institute of Japan in Tokyo said that it is too early to judge Japanese Prime minister Shinzo Abe's achievement for meditating between Iran and United States.
Speaking to ILNA news agency, he added that If Japan is willing to continue the mediation between Tehran and Washington, Japanese's leader must to know that there is a difficult road ahead. "Until the sanctions are in place and the United States does not return to Iran's deal, the success of mediators cannot be expected."
Kondo said, "Abe visited Tehran to ease tension Iran and United States and the main part of his visit was the meeting with Iran Supreme Leader."
Elsewhere he added, "Iran has high expectations of Japan despite some lingering doubts that Japan may only be a U.S. messenger."
"Iran wants Japan to ask the United States to ease its sanctions, return to the nuclear agreement and set the stage for dialogue," he continued.
As the first Japanese prime minister to visit Iran since 1978, Abe received assurances from President Hassan Rouhani that the oil-rich nation does not want war with the United States -- a welcome relief for resource-poor Japan
After talks with Abe on Wednesday, Rouhani said Japan is willing to continue buying crude oil from Iran. Iranian oil accounted for about 5 percent of Japan's total imports before the United States ended its sanctions waivers that had been given to Japan and other buyers.
A year after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal and later reinstated crippling economic sanctions, Iran said in May it would suspend some of its commitments and set a deadline of early July to negotiate new terms with other members.
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