CAIRO: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will visit Japan on Friday to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Iranian state-run media reported Abbas Araghchi, the country's deputy foreign minister for political affairs, as saying on Monday.

The trip will come at a time when the Japanese government is expected to shortly adopt at a cabinet meeting a plan to send its Maritime Self-Defense Force troops to the Middle East on a mission to secure sea lane safety in the region.

The Japanese side plans to give Rouhani an explanation on the SDF dispatch to win the president's understanding of the plan before finalizing it.

This will be the first visit to Japan by an Iranian president since October 2000, when then President Mohammad Khatami took a trip to the Asian country.

At the upcoming summit meeting, the two leaders are also likely to exchange opinions on US sanctions against Iran.

According to the Iranian media report, Araghchi said Tehran understands that Tokyo is facing pressure and hurdles given by the United States. But the Middle Eastern country still hopes that Japanese companies will keep buying Iranian crude oil, the deputy foreign minister reportedly said.

Abe visited Iran in June this year, as the first Japanese prime minister in 41 years to set foot in the country. He met with Rouhani and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The prime minister offered himself to be a mediator amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, but no significant progress has been made since then.

JIJI Press