Indonesian President Cements Ties with Iran

Source: Agencies, 12-03-2008
TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday held talks with visiting Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, thanking Jakarta for refusing to support the latest UN sanctions against Iran. "The position of the Indonesian government is the legal and fair position and I hope it will be a start of a movement to correct international structures," Ahmadinejad told the visiting president. "I hope that with this visit that relations between the two countries will develop further. There is no obstacle in the way of Iran developing its cooperation with Indonesia," he added, according to the Mehr news agency.
For his part, Yudhoyono said Iran should strengthen its cooperation with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "to avoid bringing Iran's nuclear program into the political field."
Indonesia, which holds one of the rotating seats on the UN Security Council, was the only Council member not to vote for the latest sanctions resolution on the Iranian nuclear program on March 3. Indonesia abstained, but Libya, South Africa and Vietnam, which had joined Indonesia in expressing reservations about the need for fresh sanctions, finally voted in favor.
Yudhoyono said that the decision to abstain had been " based on Iran's cooperation with the IAEA."
Resolution 1803 imposed a third set of sanctions against Tehran over its refusal to heed the Council's calls to suspend uranium enrichment and gives Iran another three months to suspend the process.
Iran insists its nuclear program is solely aimed at generating energy and it has every right to the nuclear fuel cycle, including uranium enrichment.
Media said Iran and Indonesia also signed cooperation agreements in education, agriculture, refining and trade.
Ahmadinejad visited Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, in May 2006 for talks with its leaders in Jakarta on the nuclear crisis and economic cooperation.
Iran has been assiduously courting the support of Non Aligned Movement allies like Indonesia to counter the effects of increasingly frigid relations with Western countries.