The Muslim News

Jakarta, (The Jakarta Post):

After officials at its embassy here lobbied Indonesia's Foreign Ministry to get tougher on Iran, the United States appeared to up the ante when President George W. Bush discussed the issue with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono by phone Monday.

The White House said Tuesday that Bush and Yudhoyono had discussed efforts to secure a new UN resolution on Iran's nuclear programs.

The two leaders "talked about UN Security Council efforts, including the current draft resolution designed to address Iran's continued failure to respond to concerns from the international community over Iran's nuclear program," Bush spokesman Tony Snow was quoted as saying by AFP in Washington.

Neither presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal nor Foreign Ministry director for international security and disarmament Desra Percaya returned the calls of The Jakarta Post regarding the content of the conversation.

However, several officials at the Foreign Ministry said that in recent weeks, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta had urged the Foreign Ministry to accept the new resolution.

"Officials from the U.S. Embassy came here and said that Indonesia was too weak and unclear on Iran. They asked us to accept the new resolution," an official who asked for anonymity told The Jakarta Post.

Another official said Indonesia still saw no reason why it should accept the new resolution.

The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the U.S., Britain, France, China, and Russia) plus Germany have agreed on a draft of a new resolution to impose tougher sanctions on Iran. With the major powers joining forces, the draft will likely be adopted by the council, since adoption requires only a minimum of nine votes and no veto.

However, many said the U.S. needs votes from all the non-permanent members, especially Indonesia, to show that the international community is united in support of tougher action against Iran.

Indonesia is serving a two-year term as one of 10 non-permanent members of the council. The other nine are the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar, Slovakia, Belgium, Italy, Panama and South Africa.

The council will hold an informal meeting Tuesday and its first formal discussion Wednesday on the draft resolution.

As the country with the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia's acceptance would signal that the resolution is not rejected by the Muslim community. While Indonesia is considered an ally by the U.S., it has close relations with Iran, and both are members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Non-aligned Movement.

Meanwhile, several lawmakers and experts have argued that Indonesia should reject a resolution aiming at punishing Iran in order to provide room to resolve the conflict through dialogue.

"Indonesia should not accept the new resolution because it is not clear what Iran actually has violated, and what is the basis for the U.S. to accuse Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons," Golkar's Theo Sambuaga, head of the House of Representatives' Commission I on security and international affairs, told the Post.

Zulkifli Hassan, secretary general of the People's Mandate Party (PAN), agreed that it was not fair to punish Iran for its nuclear program without conclusive evidence that the country was developing nuclear weapons.

"I'm afraid it will end up like Iraq. The U.S. was so convinced that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction but later it turned out to be an empty accusation. If Iran is cornered then we are worried they could retaliate," he said.

International relations expert Bantarto Bandoro of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies supported the concern over retaliation and said there was no evidence to back the accusation that Iran was developing nuclear weapons.

"Indonesia should lobby and unite with other like-minded countries to reject the resolution," he said.

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