Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Iran from June 12, the government said Thursday, the first trip to the country by an incumbent Japanese prime minister in over four decades.

Abe apparently hopes to mediate between the United States and Iran, and encourage dialogue between them in a bid to ease tensions.

He is expected to stress the importance of an international nuclear deal reached in 2015, even as the United States has withdrawn from it and Tehran said last month it would suspend some of its commitments under the accord.