INDONESIA: MUSLIM GROUP ENDORSES IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME (All for the Umma)

AKI ^ | Feb-09-07

[PRePublic]

INDONESIA: MUSLIM GROUP ENDORSES IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAMME

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.384806082&par=0

Abdul Khalik, 9 Feb. (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Indonesia's second largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, has expressed its support for Iran's nuclear programme, urging Jakarta to reject any UN Security Council resolution that would undermine the right of the Iranian people to nuclear energy.

"We fully support the Iranian nuclear programme, and we hope it will be able to continue to resist pressure from the US," Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsudin told reporters Thursday after meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Indonesia Behruz Kamalvandi at the Muhammadiyah office in Jakarta.

He said he had conveyed Muhammadiyah's stance to the government, including its demand that Indonesia reject any UN resolution to punishing Iran over the nuclear issue.

Indonesia is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, which in December issued a resolution ordering Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme and imposed limited sanctions on the country.

Din said Muhammadiyah, which has around 30 million members nationally, also urged the US to seek a peaceful solution to the problem and avoid any aggression against Iran.

"As we believe the Iranian nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes and for the benefit of the Iranian people, it is a basic right of a country to find ways to improve its people's welfare," he said.

Ambassador Kamalvandi said there was no evidence Iran was developing nuclear weapons through its enrichment programme, as claimed by the US and other Western countries.

"To develop nuclear weapons requires enriching uranium up to over 90 percent, while currently we only have 3 percent uranium enrichment. So the accusation is totally baseless," he said.

Kamalvandi added that several officials from European countries had acknowledged that Iran currently did not have the capability to build nuclear weapons.

"The accusation is based only on fear that Iran may have the capabilities in the future. This is ridiculous because they have the technology to detect if we build nuclear weapons or not," he said.

(Jakarta Post/Aki)

Feb-09-07 10:35