Indonesian foreign minister prods Iran on nuclear issue

20 May, 2006

Indonesia wants Iran to be responsible in dealing with world concerns about its nuclear program, lest a crisis causes oil prices to go up and hurt developing countries, Jakarta's foreign minister said on Friday.
"Iran should be flexible in their approach and they need to maximise their efforts to find a diplomatic solution to this issue," Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said.
"We want Iran to be a responsible member of sensitive neighbourhoods, the Middle East and Central Asia, and to be a responsible member of the international community," he told a breakfast gathering of the US-Indonesia Society shortly before he was to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A crisis over Iran's declared civilian nuclear program, which the West suspects is a smoke screen for a nuclear weapons program, would raise oil prices to levels that would punish the economies of developing countries, he said.
"As friends of Iran we conveyed a strong message that Indonesia will be the first to oppose any diversion of peaceful usage to military ones," he said.
Wirajuda said Jakarta conveyed its concerns "frankly" to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last weekend at the Developing Eight summit on the resort island of Bali.

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