Kinichi Komano made the remarks in an interview with the Persian service of the Fars News Agency published on Saturday in comments on the fact that the United States has urged the Japanese government to take the measures necessary to curtail oil imports from Iran.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law a defense funding bill that imposes sanctions on financial institutions dealing with the Central Bank of Iran on December 31, 2011 with the aim of hampering Iran’s crude oil exports.
Japan has requested that the U.S. grant it a waiver from the new sanctions, but reportedly may cut crude oil imports from Iran by about 20 percent.
Ambassador Kinichi said, “In Japan’s view, Iran has always been and will be important in terms of supplying energy, and the Japanese government is trying to” find a way out.
However, he said, “In my opinion, there has been a decrease in (Japan’s) oil imports from Iran over the past five years, and this is based on true statistics.”
The ambassador also said that the trade relations between Japanese and U.S. firms should be taken into consideration.
EP/PA
END
MNA