When the United States-Israeli attack on Iran was launched last weekend, an unexpected peace broker stepped forward in the form of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, leader of the world\u2019s largest Muslim country.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on social media: \u201cIndonesia calls on all parties to exercise restraint and to prioritize dialogue and diplomacy.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cIf agreed by both parties, the President of Indonesia is prepared to travel to Tehran to carry out mediation,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n But President Prabowo\u2019s offer to help mediate between the sides has provoked debate across Indonesia, coming at a time of increased criticism of his approach to foreign policy and warm ties with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m puzzled as to why this idea wasn\u2019t vetted before being made public,\u201d Dino Patti Djalal, Indonesia\u2019s former deputy foreign minister and former ambassador to the US, said in a statement on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is highly unrealistic,\u201d Djalal said.<\/p>\n Others agreed, adding that the offer could further alienate Indonesians already wary of the president\u2019s perceived cordial relationship with US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is clear that any negotiations between Iran and the US have completely ended, so to propose this seems to be not reading the room,\u201d Ian Wilson, a lecturer in politics and security studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cDomestically, people are likely to interpret this as a further alignment with Trump and therefore Netanyahu,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n In recent months, Prabowo has faced domestic scrutiny after volunteering to deploy 8,000 Indonesian troops to Gaza as part of an International Stabilization Force under the umbrella of Trump\u2019s Board of Peace (BOP) \u2013 a so-called \u201cinternational peacekeeping\u201d organisation of which Israel is also a member.<\/p>\n Indonesia does not have any formal diplomatic relations with Israel, and has long supported an independent Palestine.<\/p>\n Joining Trump\u2019s board and offering to participate in the US president\u2019s plan for Gaza has not gone down well domestically.<\/p>\n \u201cIndonesia is being used to legitimise the BOP\u2019s dystopian plan to divide Gaza into quadrants and bypass the role of the United Nations,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Indonesia to be involved fundamentally betrays its longstanding tradition of being a principled voice for the Global South, and its approach to foreign policy, which historically has been deeply respected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Indonesia was one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War, which saw the country adhere to a \u201cbebas-aktif\u201d or \u201cindependent and active\u201d approach to foreign policy for decades, avoiding the major power blocs while actively working for peace and the national interest.<\/p>\n Over the years, this has included Indonesia\u2019s attempts to broker peace in a number of global conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n But Indonesia\u2019s membership of Trump\u2019s Board of Peace amid Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza, and now the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, could present an unprecedented test for Prabowo\u2019s approach to foreign policy, experts said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Foreign Ministry\u2019s statement on the attack was regrettably naive,\u201d said Sarbini Abdul Murad, director of the humanitarian group, Indonesia for Peace and Humanity.<\/p>\n While the president had offered to mediate, little was said about the killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Sarbini said, pointing out that neighbouring Malaysia\u2019s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had condemned the assassination of Khamenei by US and Israeli forces.<\/p>\n \u201cThe death of Ali Khamenei went unanswered,\u201d he said<\/p>\n \u201cIndonesia is at a crossroads in its foreign policy,\u201d Sarbini added.<\/p>\n Indonesia\u2019s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sugiono \u2013 who, like many Indonesians, uses a single name \u2013 said in a post on social media on Wednesday that Prabowo had expressed his deepest condolences to Iranian President Masoud Pezehkian on \u201cthe passing\u201d of Khamenei.<\/p>\n While Indonesia has entrenched support for Palestine, the relationship with Iran is rather more complicated.<\/p>\n About 87 percent of the country\u2019s 270 million population follows Islam, and the majority of Indonesia\u2019s Muslims are Sunni.<\/p>\n Iran has the world\u2019s largest Shia population, which follows a different branch of Islamic theology with differing views on aspects of Islamic political theory and history.<\/p>\n \u201cPreviously, there was anti-Shia sentiment among Sunni in Indonesia,\u201d said Made Supriatma, a visiting fellow with the Indonesia Studies Programme at the ISEAS \u2013 Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, many Indonesians sympathise with Iran. This is not always out of solidarity with fellow Muslims, but rather because of anti-Israel and anti-American sentiment, which has long been high,\u201d Supriatma said.<\/p>\n Though many Indonesians support Iran, it is not on the same scale as Palestine, when thousands of people attended demonstrations across Indonesia at the start of the genocidal war on Gaza. Protests against the current war on Iran are mostly confined to \u201cchatter on social media\u201d, Supriatma said.<\/p>\n Many Indonesians have expressed sympathy for Iran and anger towards the US for what they see as an unprovoked attack on Iran, said Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer in politics, security and foreign policy at Indonesia\u2019s Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani.<\/p>\n But many are likely unaware of what is taking place inside Iran, including the \u201canti-regime protests\u201d that recently shook the country, Sulaiman said.<\/p>\n Indonesian housewife Arisha Ishana said she had indeed not heard about any demonstrations in Iran. Despite this, Ishana told Al Jazeera that she supported Iran in the conflict \u201cbecause they are fellow Muslims\u201d.<\/p>\n Ramadhan, a barista, said he supported Iran\u2019s right to defend itself.<\/p>\n \u201cThis conflict was not started by Iran, but by the US and Israel,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, adding that his feelings were not guided by his faith as a Muslim.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it is not about religion, but about humanity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added that he had been particularly upset by the bombing of a girls\u2019 school in Minab in southern Iran on Saturday, which killed 165 students and staff.<\/p>\n Neither the US nor officials in Iran have publicly commented on Prabowo\u2019s mediation offer, although the Iranian ambassador to Indonesia expressed diplomatic appreciation.<\/p>\n Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Ambassador Mohammad Boroujerdi welcomed the offer of mediation but explained that \u201cno steps\u201d had been taken to make it a reality, and lamented that negotiations would likely be fruitless.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that currently, no negotiations and discussions with the American government will be useful, because they are not bound and do not adhere to any outcomes,\u201d Boroujerdi said.<\/p>\n With growing resentment towards the US among Indonesians generally, and Trump\u2019s Board of Peace and Prabowo\u2019s role in it specifically, researcher Supriatma said the president appeared to be trying to garner support from members of Indonesia\u2019s political elite.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Prabowo convened a meeting attended by former presidents, vice presidents and political leaders, reportedly to assess the geopolitical and economic impact of the Iranian conflict.<\/p>\n Following the meeting, which ran for more than three hours, according to official reports, Indonesia\u2019s former Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told local media that Prabowo was willing to \u201cevaluate\u201d Indonesia\u2019s role in Trump\u2019s peace board, following the latest events in Iran.<\/p>\n Supriatma said the president appears \u201ccornered\u201d by his own foreign policy decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cHe can\u2019t explain why Indonesia needs to join the BOP and, in my view, he doesn\u2019t have a clear stance on Indonesia\u2019s position on the United States and Israel,\u201d Supriatma said.<\/p>\n \u201cHis pro-American position and seemingly tolerant approach to Israel is indeed not popular in Indonesia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut how long will this last? That is the question,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cCan Prabowo maintain his current stance when footage of children dying from Israeli and American bombs is being widely circulated?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When the United States-Israeli attack on Iran was launched last weekend, an unexpected peace broker stepped forward in the form of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, leader of the world\u2019s largest Muslim country. The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on social media: \u201cIndonesia calls on all parties to exercise restraint and to prioritize dialogue and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Bebas-aktif\u2019 \u2013 \u2018independent and active\u2019<\/h3>\n
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