Japan's govt to send warship, patrol planes to Middle East

Japan's government has announced that it will send a warship and patrol planes to protect Japanese ships in the Middle East as the situation in the region remains volatile.

The cabinet office said the rare overseas deployment, which will be limited to intelligence-gathering, is meant to ensure the security of Japanese merchant ships and help maintain peace and stability in the region. The



decision follows a series of attacks on oil tankers in the region, one of which was Japanese-operated.

The announcement follows a meeting last week in Tokyo between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose country the United States has blamed for attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman in June.