Indonesia to Lobby Other Countries to Prevent US Attack on Iraq
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Senin, 21 Juli 2003 11:08 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:The Indonesian government is planning to lobby some friendly, like-minded countries in order to stop the US plan to attack Iraq. We will approach European countries. The government and inter-religions team will send a lobbying team to Europe and Australia, said Minister of Foreign Affairs Hasan Wirajuda during a press conference at his office on Friday (31/1). This morning, the foreign minister hosted a foreign policy breakfast (FPB) meeting with several religious figures. The Foreign Affairs Ministry FPB program is intended to promote discussion of foreign affairs policies with public figures. Started early in 2002, the program aims to discuss political policies and to obtain input from public figures. The discussion topic at this ninth FPB meeting focussed on the Iraq crisis. As previously reported, the US plans to attack Iraq based on the assumption that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction. However, the report of the UN weapons inspection team did not prove this assumption, as was conveyed at the UN Security Council on January 27. In order to prevent this attack, Indonesia sent special envoy Ali Alatas, a former Indonesian foreign minister, to South Africa last week. Another special envoy, Nana Sutrisna, will be sent to Middle East in early February. We have also called on the House of Representatives (DPR) to contact its partners such as inter-parliament cooperation organizations and the inter-parliamentary union in Europe to prevent the war and maximize efforts for a peaceful solution, explained Wirajuda. Domestically, the minister said that the government has already anticipated the matter by holding discussions and dialogs. These are intended to prevent any widespread impact of the Iraq crisis, he said. Wirajuda said Indonesia had to clarify its stance against the US plan to attack Iraq. (D.A. CandraningrumTempo News Room)
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