Japan Turns Down US Request to Join Persian Gulf Mission
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Japan will not join a US-led maritime force which is supposed to help guard oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a report said.
But Japan may send warships independently to protect Japanese ships in the world’s most important oil artery, said the Mainichi newspaper on Friday, citing unidentified government sources, Reuters reported.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and continue to collect information while working closely with the United States and other countries,” said Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, when asked about the report.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week called on Japan, Britain, France, Germany, South Korea, Australia and other nations to join the so-called maritime force to guard oil tankers sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also said recently that his country would not participate in the naval mission.
Washington has lately adopted a quasi-warlike posture against Tehran, and intensified its provocative military moves in the Middle East, among them the June 20 incursion of advanced US-made RQ-4 Global Hawk into Iranian airspace over territorial waters off the coastal province of Hormozgan.
The UK has joined the US in fueling tensions with Iran by seizing an Iranian-owned supertanker in the Strait of Gibraltar on July 4 in an apparent act of “maritime piracy.”
