AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
JAKARTA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives in Jakarta Tuesday for a visit during which he may ask Indonesia to play a mediating role with Western nations over Iran's contested nuclear program.
The five-day trip comes amid intensive diplomatic efforts to force Tehran to halt uranium enrichment that could be used in a nuclear bomb.
Foreign ministers of six world powers met in New York Monday for urgent talks seeking a unified position on what to do about Iran's controversial program.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted the talks for her counterparts from Russia, China, France, Britain — the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — plus Germany.
Security Council members are bargaining over a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
Monday's meeting came hours after Ahmadinejad wrote to US President George W. Bush, breaking a quarter century of official silence between the top levels of government in Washington and Tehran.
The letter was portrayed by Tehran officials as an important diplomatic initiative to break the weeks-long impasse on the nuclear issue but a White House official said its contents did not change Washington's position.
The United States has called for sanctions and refused to rule out using force to stop the hardline Islamic regime's disputed nuclear drive.
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Desra Percaya said Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, could “play the role of a middleman” between Iran and its Western opponents as the crisis persists.
“On the one hand, we hope we can be trusted by other countries to convey Iran's messages on its behalf, while on the other, we hope we can help Iran to understand more easily what other countries expect them to do,” he told AFP.
Analysts here said that Iran in turn may be keen to use Jakarta as a buffer.
“As the world's largest Islamic country, Indonesia can play a role as a mediator between Iran and its Western detractors, and Iran is aware of this,” political analyst Maswadi Rauf from the University of Indonesia told AFP.
He said that Indonesia wanted to assist any military action against Iran would “impact our local economy and the government does not want this to happen.”
Dewi Fortuna Anwar, from private thinktank the Habibie Center, said Indonesia would in particular likely try talking Iran out of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since the move would only alienate it further.
“Indonesia does not wish to see Iran being isolated like North Korea. Indonesia, I assume, will try to be in the middle on this issue by not taking Iran's side or siding with Western countries,” Anwar said.
Iranian leaders have signalled Iran could quit the NPT — the cornerstome of the global effort against the spread of nuclear weapons — if the country comes under more pressure to halt its nuclear fuel work.
During his visit, the Iranian president will sign agreements on energy cooperation and tourism, and will meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Indonesia said last month that Iran wants to invest 600 million dollars in energy projects here.
Ahmadinejad will also give a speech at the University of Indonesia, hold talks with students at the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic University in Ciputat and meet with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce.
He will also attend Friday prayers at the Istiqlal mosque after meeting with Islamic leaders before flying to Bali to attend the Developing-8 (D-8) group of large Muslim countries which opens Friday.
