MNA � Spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council said efforts to remove US extraterritorial sanctions against Iran could guarantee the success of Japanese PM�s visit to the Islamic Republic.

In a note on Saturday, Keivan Khosravi, Spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council, wrote that the upcoming visit of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Iran �will definitely be an important event in consolidating and developing friendly relations between the two countries in various fields.�

It is said that Shinzo Abe is coming to Iran as a mediator between Tehran and Washington, he wrote, adding that the success of the Japanese prime minister�s visit could be guaranteed if efforts were made to �return the US to the JCPOA and compensate the losses incurred on Iran,� and to �remove the US extraterritorial sanctions on our country,� which are both accepted and stressed by the international community.

According to Japanese media, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to make an official visit to Iran from June 12 to 14. The visit will be the first by an incumbent Japanese prime minister since 1978.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi has dismissed media speculations that the aim of Abe's visit is to play an intermediary between the US and Iran amid heightened tension.

The Japanese prime minister last met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of UNGA meeting in 2013.