Indonesia Mulls Over Mediating Tensions in Middle East
Jakarta. Indonesia is preparing a series of diplomatic steps to help resolve tensions in the Middle East as ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran continue to deteriorate following the former's execution of a Shiite cleric.
The Saudi government on Saturday executed cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and three other Shiites on terrorism charges on Saturday, alongside dozens of Sunni jihadists.
Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran on Sunday and fellow-Sunni Bahrain followed suit on Monday, two days after Iranian demonstrators stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in protest of the execution.
Indonesia's religious affairs minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin said on Tuesday that the country is trying to stage an international conference to bring the two sides together.
“By staging some kind of a conference, not only will [Saudi Arabia and Iran] sit down together, but other countries will also work to find a concrete solution in the near future,” the minister said after meeting President Joko Widodo at the state palace.
Lukman said many Indonesians have urged the president to quell the ongoing tensions in fear of similar sentiments spreading to other regions.
The president on Tuesday welcomed members of the Indonesian Council of Ulema, one of the most influential Muslim groups in the country. The group, known as the MUI, said Indonesia, as home to the world's biggest Muslim population with strong ties with both countries, has the power and interest to maintain peace in the Middle East.
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