Japan 'Circumspect' about Iran Embargo
Japan is "extremely circumspect" about the U.S.-led drive to impose sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the country's foreign minister said Friday, apparently contradicting an earlier pledge to join Washington's campaign.
"The United States would like to impose sanctions. We believe it is necessary to be extremely circumspect about this matter," Koichiro Gemba told a press conference.
Gemba's comments come 24 hours after Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Japan wanted to "take planned and concrete steps to further reduce" Tokyo's dependence on Iranian crude.
At Friday's news conference, jointly held with visiting French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, Gemba said the Japanese government had come to no conclusions on the sanctions issue.
"We must look at this extremely carefully and find an intelligent solution," he told reporters.
"We as a government are in the process of examining the issue and coming to a common position."
Gemba said over the last five years Japan had reduced its dependence on Iranian crude, which now made up around nine percent of the country's oil imports.
"We are examining whether there is any advantage in a further reduction.
"But it is important to know what impact any reduction would have on the price of crude.
"If there was resurgence in price that could not be considered a sanction, because the more the price of oil rises, the more Iran benefits.
"One can imagine there would be negative effects (from this scheme) not just on Japan but on the world economy."
Source: Agence France Presse
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