Indonesia Welcomes Iran’s Leader

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed Wednesday to the world’s most populous Muslim country by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who offered to mediate new international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

“Indonesia hopes that on this very critical issue we could cooperate well in reducing the tensions and finding a way for the continuation of talk and negotiations,” Yudhoyono said after the meeting. “President Ahmadinejad is more than willing to have a genuine and fair negotiation.”

The Iranian president’s visit came two days after his overture to the U.S. in the form of an 18-page letter to President Bush that was long on history and short on proposals. The Bush administration rejected it as a ploy to avoid possible U.N. sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad told reporters in Jakarta, the capital, that he was “not disquieted” by Bush’s rejection of his letter, believed to be the first direct communication between the leaders of Iran and the United States in nearly three decades.

“If they choose not to answer our question, it depends on them,” Ahmadinejad said.

The United Nations Security Council is considering a resolution that would pave the way for sanctions or military action if Iran refuses to stop developing nuclear technology. The U.S. is under mounting pressure from some allies to engage in direct talks with Iran.

Yudhoyono, a former general who has cooperated with the U.S. in cracking down on Islamic terrorism suspects, proposed broadening negotiations to include Indonesia and other nations.

“We need to breathe new life into these negotiations,” said his spokesman, Dino Patti Djalal, after the meeting.

Yudhoyono and Ahmadinejad also agreed on a series of accords, including a plan for Iran to help build an oil refinery in Indonesia to process Iranian crude oil, most of which would be shipped to China. Iran has pledged to invest $600 million in Indonesia’s oil industry, though the tab for the refinery would exceed $4 billion.

Ahmadinejad, standing at Yudhoyono’s side during a news conference, took the opportunity to defend Iran’s nuclear stance and criticized the West as seeking to limit the development of peaceful nuclear technology.

The Iranian leader said his nation’s nuclear program had received far more scrutiny than had Western nations that already have nuclear bombs and are developing new weapons systems. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear monitoring arm, have spent 2,000 man-days examining Tehran’s nuclear program, the Iranian leader said.

“The republic of Iran is the only country whose activity is fully transparent,” he said. “Our nuclear activities have been totally peaceful.”

He also accused the West of hypocrisy in its concern over which nations have weapons of mass destruction.

“I tell you honestly that they are not concerned about the non-peaceful nuclear activities of any country in the world. It is because they themselves are engaging in non-peaceful nuclear activities. They are expanding it day by day,” he said.

Ahmadinejad argued that Muslim nations should have the right to develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes so they are not beholden to the U.S.

“They want to keep the modern sciences and technology in their monopoly so that they can sell it to other countries at very high cost,” he said. “And this is the main reason for their opposition to the peaceful nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Ahmadinejad and Yudhoyono had met at least once before during a U.N. session in New York last year. The Iranian president is visiting Indonesia for six days, including a trip to Bali this weekend for a meeting of leaders of the Developing 8, or D-8, a group of predominantly Muslim nations.

Yudhoyono, who once served in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is seeking to broaden an international role for Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country. He sent an envoy to North Korea to try to end an impasse in negotiations over its nuclear program, without success.

Yudhoyono also is courting greater investment for Indonesia, which has grown more stable since he was elected in 2004. But plagued by corruption and lack of development, Indonesia is the only member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to import more oil than it produces even as prices have skyrocketed.

At one point, Yudhoyono called Iran a “close friend” of Indonesia. Ahmadinejad spoke enthusiastically, too.

“I am sure if both countries are working together,” the Iranian president said, “we can take positive and effective steps to solve many international problems, especially in the Middle East.”