TEHRAN – The Iranian Embassy in Tokyo has harshly criticized Japan and Australia for a recent joint statement from the two nations’ foreign ministers, which contained “biased,” “unacceptable,” and “hypocritical” remarks about Iran.
The diplomatic rebuke comes in response to a clause in the Australia-Japan joint statement that said Iran must “comply with its nuclear safeguards obligations. It must restore full IAEA access, address concerns about its nuclear stockpile and enrichment, and return to negotiations.” The statement did not mention Western sanctions against Iran, nor the dangerous US-Israeli airstrikes that hit Iran’s nuclear sites in June and derailed ongoing talks between Tehran and Washington.
In its statement, the Iranian Embassy expressed deep “regret” over Japan’s involvement, accusing it of aligning with Australia—a country it described as acting in bad faith. The statement highlighted that Australia had “without any reasonable cause” recently downgraded its diplomatic ties with Iran, making its current call for diplomacy “hypocritical”.
Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador last month after accusing the country of being behind failed “antisemitic” attacks on Australian soil. Canberra provided no evidence for its accusations. Previous reports of “antisemitic” attacks in the country had proved to be fake.
The Iranian statement also pointed out that Iran was in the middle of a diplomatic process when Israel and the United States began a bombing campaign of its nuclear, military, and civilian sites, killing over 1,000 Iranians, mostly civilians, in the span of 12 days. Japan had called the attacks on Iran “totally intolerable”. Iranians have traditionally viewed Tokyo as a logical and neutral actor. The Japanese government’s recent statement marks the second time it has made inflammatory remarks about Iran in recent months.
“It was the Israeli regime and America that destroyed diplomacy through their illegal attacks on Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities and should be condemned and held accountable for the current situation, not Iran,” the embassy said.
Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, has said that Iran is open to kickstarting new negotiations, but the United States is making it impossible to re-engage in diplomacy by setting out unacceptable pre-conditions. Washington, Larijani said, wants Iran to discuss limitations on its missile program, something that has been a nonstarter for the country for years. Iran managed to force Israel and the U.S. to ask for a ceasefire in June thanks to the impact of its missiles that rained down on the occupied territories, as well as an American airbase in Qatar.
AloJapan.com