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2 Iran's star rises in the
East By Clive Parker
BANGKOK - While the United Nations
Security Council contemplates new measures aimed
at defusing Iran's supposed nuclear-weapons
program, Tehran has simultaneously launched a
diplomatic charm offensive in Southeast Asia that
could complicate the world body's ability to build
a consensus on sanctions.
The United
States has recently warned UN member states that
doing deals with Tehran would be risky business if
the Security
Council decides to impose
full-blown economic sanctions against the hardline
regime. Those warnings have gone largely unheeded
in Southeast Asia, where Iran is winning over
countries through bilateral religious
overtures, big new energy deals, and even a sense
of pariah-state solidarity with Myanmar's ruling
generals.
Of the 15 temporary and
permanent UN Security Council members, Indonesia
has shown the first signs of dissent that would
seemingly work against a unanimous sanctions vote
against Iran. The council's only Southeast Asian
member reiterated last week that "diplomacy and
negotiations" were the best way forward, counter
the punitive position staked out by Washington and
perhaps even Moscow and Beijing. Reports in the
Jakarta press cited an anonymous government
official as saying that Indonesia would likely
abstain on or oppose new Security Council measures
against Tehran.
Iran has over the past
year reached out to the two moderate Muslim states
in Asia. Warming diplomatic and growing commercial
relations with Indonesia appear to have influenced
Jakarta's position at the UN. Iranian Parliament
Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel visited Indonesia
for three days in mid-February aiming at
bolstering ties. The Iranian press hailed the
visit as a sign that ties with Indonesia remained
"stable and sustainable" and quoted
parliamentarians in Jakarta saying that any US
suggestion of Iranian nuclear proliferation was
"sheer lies".
Last week, the head of
Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi
Shahroudi, spent three days in Malaysia and four
days in Jakarta, during which he met with both
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. All
three countries called for greater unity among
Muslim nations in addressing their mounting
problems. A so-called Iran-Indonesia Friendship
Association was also planned in this connection.
These friendly gestures are backed by big
investment plans. For instance, Tehran agreed last
year to build a US$5 billion oil refinery for
Iranian fuel imports on Indonesia's main island of
Java. Since 2002, bilateral trade has increased
steadily between the two countries - trade last
year through October was worth $336 million, an
11% increase on the same period the year before.
Both countries' leaders have said they believe
that figure should be much higher.
Indonesia is not alone in coming to Iran's
diplomatic defense; several other Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, including
Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar, have openly backed
Tehran's pursuit of developing peaceful nuclear
energy.
Indeed, several ASEAN countries
have similar nuclear energy plans on their drawing
boards - in which they no doubt would not want US
interference. While the US and its huge markets
remain an important economic growth engine for the
region, Washington's attempts to hem in Iran works
at cross-purposes with many fuel-importing ASEAN
countries' pursuit of energy-security strategies.
The 10-member grouping currently accounts
for roughly 16% of the world's Muslim population,
with roughly 220 million Islamic adherents
scattered across the region, including about 190
million in Indonesia alone. That represents a
larger Muslim population than in both North Africa
and Europe and is on par with the entire Middle
East. Only the South Asia region is home to more
Muslims.
To suggest that Islam is the
primary catalyst for strengthening ASEAN-Iran ties
would be misleading - as ever, energy is the main
fuel for engagement. Iran is home to 10% of the
world's
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