Abbas says Indonesia a 'brother country'

Mon, 07/07/2008 10:31 AM  |  Headlines

 

Question: Will you be attending the conference?
Answer: His excellency the President extended the invitation just now. Unfortunately on those dates, I have long since been scheduled to meet with (French) President (Nicolas) Sarkozy. So I won't be attending in Jakarta. But I will ask the prime minister, with a high-ranking delegation, to attend the conference there.

What is the importance of the conference in Jakarta?
It is highly important because it all started in 1955 in Bandung with the late Sukarno, Abdul Naseer, Nehru, Tito and others, and at that time they concentrated on the Palestinian question. Fifty years later, Palestine remains the same. For that, I believe this conference, which will be chaired by Indonesia and South Africa, will be a very important help to the Palestinian people. It will be complementary to the conferences in Annapolis and Paris. And there will be projects for the Palestinian people and a follow-up committee also to oversee the implementation of the projects for the Palestinian people. It is a revival of the 1955 conference. Nobody forgot. We didn't forget. Indonesia didn't forget that there was a pledge to the Palestinian people and it will continue. For that, we are very grateful to your country, our brothers, and the President himself.

What are the development priorities in Palestine?
We have many. First are the security and economic issues. Security, we're working on that, and I think the situation is very stable in the West Bank. We are in need of industrial zones, infrastructure, housing, hotels. These are the priorities. With that capacity building is needed in various aspects of governance. The more we receive, the more we can improve the life of the Palestinian people and the peace process as a whole. Because without security and without economy, we are working in vain.

With a conducive security situation, do you think capacity-building projects can be implemented?
They will be because now the whole situation is right for receiving such kinds of projects.

Security is of vital importance in order to carry out technical projects in Palestine. How do you see the situation now?
Security is good, especially in the West Bank. In Gaza, we have problems. It is still unstable, there is a truce between the Israelis and Hamas, but it is not fully implemented because, from time to time, some people breach (the peace) here and there. They violate the security situation. But it is better than before and I hope that in time it will be stable.

Asian and African countries have not really been involved in the peace process. What are your thoughts?
Indonesia was involved in Annapolis, participated at our request. In the beginning, no Islamic country had been invited. But after we insisted to the Americans, Indonesia and Turkey attended as Muslim countries. And the same with the Paris conference. So, these countries can also help create some sort of mechanism that should be located in Palestine.

We have the representatives to the Quartet, Tony Blair -- the ex-PM of Britain. Now if only the co-chairs of this (Jakarta) conference can send envoys to Palestine. We already have South Africa, but unfortunately we don't have Indonesia in Palestine to follow up this mechanism. It will be very important to see what is and is not implemented, then to push the participants in order to implement their pledges and commitments.

How are the peace talks right now?
As you know, since Annapolis, we've started our talks with the Israelis on six core issues -- Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, security and water. All these are open between us and the Israelis. Of course with the participation of the Americans from time to time, we have very intensive talks with the Israelis. But unfortunately until now we haven't finalized any of those issues. We hope we have time, we have about six months before the end of 2008 to finalize either all of these issues or most of them. And after that, under the new U.S. administration, we will continue our effort with the Israelis.

How are you working with Hamas?
I issued an initiative one month ago calling on them for reconciliation. Now this initiative is in the hands of the Arab League that will try to bring some ideas to be implemented to have a reconciliation. We hope that within two months they can conclude something.

Have you consulted with Hamas on Palestine's needs to be addressed at the Jakarta conference?
We haven't. We are the legitimate authority, and I am the President of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas is in the opposition. Of course we want to bring them in but until now they're still out. Until they're in, we decide by ourselves.

What do you expect from Indonesia in the peace process?
We consider Indonesia as a brother country. We've had good relations since Bandung, even before that. So we expect Indonesia to move more and more to support as much as they can. And we know that they will extend their full capacity in order to help the Palestinian people. So we are not telling them what to do because they know exactly what to do.

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