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Japan to work with U.S. on Iran

November 13, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Japan will "strengthen its alliance" with the United States when it comes to Iran issues, the Japanese prime minister said.

Yukio Hatoyama spoke Friday after his summit in Tokyo with President Obama. The two leaders had discussed containing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, particularly in North Korea and Iran.

"We have agreed to closely cooperate with one another," Hatoyama said. "We would like to support the approach to Iran. On the one hand, we want to emphasize our historic relationship" with Iran, "but also, at the same time, I promise to strengthen our alliance vis-à-vis Iran."

Obama is seeking wall-to-wall international support for his strategy of reaching out to Iran diplomatically while threatening to sanction the Islamic Republic if it does not stand down from its suspected nuclear weapons program.

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