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1.
MINISTER DENIES RI WAS PRESSURED BY WEST TO SUPPORT
SANCTIONS ON IRAN
Jakarta
- Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia was in no way pressured
by western powers to support the UNSC resolution imposing additional
sanctions on Iran for refusing to cease its nuclear development program.
Speaking
at a meeting with a number of mass media chiefs, legislators and
representatives of non-governmental organizations at the Foreign Affairs
Ministry on Tuesday (27/03), the minister said Indonesia had determined
its stance after duly considering and keeping abreast of the current
situation. He hoped the people would understand the decision and should
not merely consider it as a betrayal toward Iran or as support for Israel
and the US or the west.
"One
of our considerations was the change in Russia's and China's stance. The
two countries were earlier strongly against sanctions on Iran but they
eventually took part in drawing up the draft resolution," he said.
"There
must be something behind the change in their stance. China and Russia
which were ready to provide Iran with locations for nuclear development
seemed to be disappointed by Iran's stance," he said.
According
to Wirajuda, if Iran was seriously developing nuclear power for peaceful
purposes, it should be more transparent, especially towards the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and consider the offer from
Russia.
In
the negotiation processes, Iran had also tended to prefer talking with the
major powers in the UN Security Council (the US, Russia, China, Britain,
France) and Germany. "Meanwhile,
Indonesia and a number of other countries were not involved in the
negotiations. We, of course, did not want to give our support
blindly," he added.
He
said Indonesia had tried to prioritize negotiations in settling the Iran
issue to avoid possible sanctions which it feared would only exacerbate
the situation. Any military sanction would of course be opposed by
Indonesia because it would jeopardize the surrounding areas and countries,
he said.
Indonesia
had also called for justice in efforts to ban nuclear weapons, he said,
adding that it was not only Iran which was set as a target. Indonesia gave
a number of ideas to Resolution 1747, mainly calling for justice as a
factor which should be taken into account like an article urging all
parties in the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to meet their obligations
and a sentence supporting efforts to create zones that were free from
weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Although the sentence did
not name any country in the zones, the inference was that the zones also
included Israel (Antara, 28/3/07).
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