Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Bogor
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda questioned Western countries' ""biased"" perception of Iran's nuclear activities Sunday, but reiterated the government's call to the countries to pursue a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Hassan also warned here that the nuclear issue should be handled cautiously to avoid misunderstandings, particularly among Indonesian Muslims, of a double standard in dealing with the Islamic state.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors, of which Indonesia and Iran are members, passed a resolution Saturday requesting that the agency's director general report Iran to the United Nations Security Council over suspicions it plans to build nuclear weapons.
Indonesia, which abstained from voting because it believes Iran will choose negotiation to deal with the crisis, condemned it as a ""hasty"" decision and has repeatedly warned of a possible Iran retaliation if the country is cornered on the issue.
During a media workshop in Cipayung, Bogor, Hassan again compared the crisis with Iran with that of North Korea, in which the countries concerned chose multiparty talks to solve the problem, instead of UN referral.
He said that while North Korea had withdrawn from the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, expelled the IAEA's inspectors from the country and boasted about its nuclear weapons, there is no proof that Iran would continue the uranium enrichment process to build nuclear weapons.
""We see there is another way of taking sides with one country over another. This is not a favorable situation for new Iranian president (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, whose defiant talk does not please the West, but, still, we have to focus on the major issue.
""We are still confident that a peaceful solution is the most ideal one to solve the crisis.""
Hassan also warned that misleading information could create unease among Muslims.
""This issue can be easily seen as a bias. If Iran's defiance ends in a conflict, they (Muslims) can interpret this situation as a form of oppression of Muslims, although we (the government) want to emphasize that this is not the issue.""
He added that people here could argue the West did not make Israel's alleged possession of nuclear weapons a global concern. ""Our government will respond with rationality, but the general public can easily pinpoint the contradiction,"" he said.
Israel, along with India and Pakistan, has not signed or ratified the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The Israeli government has refused to confirm or deny that it has a nuclear weapon program, although Mordechai Vanunu, a former employee at Negev Nuclear Research Center in the Negev desert near Dimona, disclosed the presence of the Dimona nuclear reactor in 1986. He was subsequently jailed for espionage.
Hassan said his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki agreed with the confidence-building measures outlined in the IAEA's resolution, but added Iran did not want to be referred to the UN Security Council, a move which would result in sanctions.
He also warned that Iran's refusal to stop uranium enrichment and Security Council referral would create another crisis that affect the whole world. Besides the possibility of rising oil prices, he also said that any crisis in Iran could exacerbate armed conflicts in the Middle East.
