MEDIA REACTION IRAN - TOKYO

UNCLAS TOKYO 001253 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR I/RF, PA/PR/FPC/W, IIP/G/EA, EAP/PD, R/MR, EAP/J, EAP/P, PM; USTR FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; TREASURY FOR OASIA/IMI; SECDEF FOR OASD/PA; CP BUTLER OKINAWA FOR AREA FIELD OFFICE; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO JA SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION IRAN - TOKYO LEAD STORIES: Thursday morning's conservative Sankei front-paged the DRPI talks that started Tuesday in Hawaii, speculating that USG and GOJ negotiators would discuss both a new strategy to strengthen the US-Japan alliance and the details of US force transformation and base realignment. ¶1. "Deepening Iranian Nuclear Crisis: Tehran Using Oil and Natural Gas as Diplomatic Card" The business daily Nihon Keizai's Dubai correspondent Kagaya wrote (3/9): "Although the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will likely take up Iran's nuclear program as early as next week, Tehran continues to take a hard-line stance in the belief that it will be able to use its abundant oil and natural gas resources as a diplomatic card and expand its international support. Meanwhile, there are growing fears that a failure of the US and other major nations to bring Iran into a new nuclear framework could spur the further proliferation of nuclear weapons.... ¶2. "To counter pressure from the US, Tehran is stepping up its efforts to use oil and gas rights as a carrot with which to win over China and Russia, both of which hold a veto on the UNSC, as well as regional powers. Tehran has concluded that winning over the support of these countries will allow it to avoid a resolution on sanctions.... There is growing speculation that the US will form a bloc resembling the 'coalition of the willing' in Iraq if the UN does not impose sanctions. A diplomatic source stated: 'Without the participation of China, Russia, and the majority of developing countries, sanctions would not be much more effective than the steps that the United States has taken on its own in the past." SCHIEFFER