Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called on all sides jostling in the tense Middle East to increase diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the crisis, but made no indication that Japan will cancel the dispatch of a warship and reconnaissance aircraft to the region in the coming weeks. In his first press conference of the year on Monday, Abe expressed deep concern about the worsening violence in the region and the possibility it might spiral out of control. Speaking after a visit to Ise Jingu shrine, in Mie Prefecture, to mark the New Year, Abe said, “With heightened tensions in the Middle East , I am deeply concerned about the current situation. “A further escalation of the situation should be avoided and I ask all parties involved to exhaust all diplomatic efforts to ease tensions,” he said. Trump’s strike on Soleimani: Abe embarrassed, Kim Jong-un laughing Abe was speaking three days after Qassim Soleimani , the most senior Iranian military commander, was killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport. Tehran was quick to vow revenge on the United States and its allies, with President Donald Trump further upping the ante in a series of Twitter messages in which he said that any retaliatory attacks against US interests would meet overwhelming force. Trump said that 52 locations in Iran are being targeted, including sites of cultural and historic importance. Abe made no mention of reversing the decision to send a Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) destroyer to the Middle East next month, followed by the deployment of long-range surveillance aircraft, with analysts saying the prime minister is unable to reverse course on a strategy only announced on December 27. “Abe intends to continue with the deployment to demonstrate to the US that he is stepping up to the plate and accepting more of the burden, in line with the terms of the Japanese constitution,” said Stephen Nagy, an associate professor of international relations at Tokyo’s International Christian University. And while safeguarding Japan’s energy resources is a key part of the reason for that action, he pointed out, it is also significant that the US is putting increasing pressure on Tokyo to pay more to station military personnel in Japan. “If Japan does not step up to the plate, that will give Trump more ammunition to demand that Japan pays more,” Nagy said. In an editorial, the left-leaning Asahi newspaper suggested it was significant that Japanese warships and aircraft operating in the Middle East would be separate from operations involving the coalition that the US has been building in the region, which may be a sign of further things to come. Iran’s options for revenge on Trump aren’t limited to its military “Japan will take a more noticeably independent position on the world stage and this year is likely to see it strengthen its messaging,” the paper said, suggesting that Abe may look to forge closer ties with China. President Xi Jinping is due to make a state visit to Japan in the spring, it pointed out. While Japan will not break step entirely with the US, Nagy said, Tokyo may well attempt to serve as a counterpoint to aggressive action by encouraging diplomacy. “I think the Japanese government will try to propose some form of dialogue that helps to de-escalate tensions, perhaps by sponsoring an international conference,” he told the South China Morning Post . “Abe will quietly whisper to the Trump administration that there are other ways to defuse the crisis, he will make calls to the Iranians to urge restraint and to the international community to encourage a return to the nuclear freeze deal.” On Thursday, a day after Tehran announced that it would no longer be bound by the terms of an agreement reached in 2015 to limits its nuclear development programme, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called on the government in Tehran to abide by its previous commitments. Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Suga said, “Iran’s latest announcement is disappointing and leaves us strongly concerned.”