WASHINGTON (AFP): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken thanked Indonesia’s incoming president, Prabowo Subianto, for offering assistance in crisis-hit Gaza during their meeting Tuesday at an aid conference in Jordan.
The president-elect of the world’s largest Muslim-majority country has pledged to send peacekeeping forces if a UN-backed ceasefire is in place and to increase medical aid immediately.
Blinken congratulated Prabowo, now Indonesia’s defence minister, on his election and discussed how the US-led ceasefire initiative “would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians”, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
Blinken “thanked the defence minister for Indonesia’s support for the proposal to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and secure the release of all hostages”, Miller added.
Addressing the conference on the Dead Sea, Prabowo said Indonesia was ready to send medical teams, a field hospital and a hospital ship to war-battered Gaza.
He also said Indonesia would evacuate 1,000 people for medical treatment in the Southeast Asian country, as well as children who have lost their parents or suffer other trauma, and help them return them to Gaza after the war is over.
“Although we are willing to support and contribute to all these efforts, the final solution to this problem is a two-state solution,” he said.
“Only with a two-state solution with Palestine and Israel living side by side in security and safety can we resolve this problem.”
The United States, a longstanding ally of Indonesia, has encouraged a greater global role for the country, historically known for religious moderation, although some US officials in the past have questioned whether Jakarta carries such ambitions.
Indonesia has no official relations with Israel, yet it has allowed limited contact such as trade, and Israeli officials have voiced guarded hopes for eventual normalisation.
While the United States had previously denied Prabowo a visa over alleged involvement in the abduction of democracy activists at the end of Suharto’s dictatorship, US President Joe Biden has signalled a change in approach by personally congratulating Prabowo.
