To avoid Iran ire, Japan may send ships off Yemen: Report

Japanese government sources say Tokyo is not willing to join a US-led naval mission purportedly aimed at protecting shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf, but is mulling over sending ships off Yemen.

According to Press TV, the sources told Kyodo news agency that the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reluctant to participate in the US-led coalition of escorting vessels through the Strait of Hormuz to counter the alleged “Iran threat” amid concerns about possible damage to Tokyo-Tehran friendly ties.

Earlier this week, US Pentagon Chief Mark Esper urged Japan to "strongly consider" getting "involved in this type of monitoring of the strait.”

As a compromise, the sources said, Japan is considering sending Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers and P-3C Orion surveillance planes to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between war-torn Yemen and the Horn of Africa.

"We can't just do nothing," a senior Abe administration official said.

The Japanese ships would not be part of the US-proposed mission, though the area of their operations would overlap.

The Japanese government sources noted that Abe hopes to discuss the issue with US President Donald Trump during a meeting on the sidelines of a G7 summit in France later this month.

The United States has been trying to persuade its allies into an international coalition with the declared aim of providing “security” for merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz — though which about a fifth of all oil consumed globally pass —and other strategic West Asian shipping lanes.

Washington claims Tehran has played a role in two separate attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman in May and June, without providing any credible evidence to support the accusations, which Iran has categorically rejected.

Germany and France have so far rebuffed requests from the Trump administration to join the military coalition in the Persian Gulf.

ME