Yudhoyono rejects phone calls from US and Iranian presidents

Secretary General of the Democrats Party Marzuki Alie said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had shown the true identity of the Indonesian people by rejecting a phone call from US President George W Bush before the UN Security Council meeting on voting on an additional sanction on Iran.

Not only a call from Bush, Yudhoyono also refused to accept a phone call from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The rejections showed the world that Indonesia didn`t want to be intervened by outsiders pertaining its independence on the UN resolution for an additional sanction on Iran, Marzuki told ANTARA News here on Sunday.

After opening a working meeting of the West Sumatra chapter`s Democrats Party in Padang, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was contacted by Bush and Ahmadinejad by phone, but Yudhoyono was reluctant to accept the calls.

Such calls from the two presidents had to do with their lobbies to exert their influence against Indonesia as a member of non Permanent UN Security Council.

"The rejection concerned practically showed Indonesia as a country which also has its identity," he stressed.

Rejecting calls from Bush and Ahmadinejad meant that Indonesia could not be detacted by the UN and Iran. "We also have our own opinion and therefore other countries should respect it."

Asked whether Indonesia`s abstention in the voting session might affect the country`s relations with the US, Marzuki said... more