JAKARTA: Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi is visiting Jordan, Turkey and Belgium, and meeting with her Jordanian and Palestinian counterparts, in response to US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
After attending the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Summit in Istanbul on Wednesday, she will visit Brussels to meet EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and lobby the bloc not to follow the US move.
Rallies have been held in Jakarta almost daily against the US decision, one of them organized by the Indonesian Volunteers Society (MRI).
The coordinator of the MRI Jakarta chapter, Robi Andriana, said donations collected at the rally will be given to the Jakarta-based humanitarian body Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) to help Palestinians.
“Currently, we have 50 MRI members in Jerusalem running a public kitchen for locals who guard Al-Aqsa Mosque,” he told Arab News.
“We set up the kitchen on Friday in anticipation of the ‘day of rage’ following the US announcement.”
The head of the Indonesian National Committee for Palestinians (KNRP) has urged the Indonesian government to demand that the US withdraw its decision within seven days or have its ambassador expelled.
“The core of our foundation is to support Palestinian independence through people-to-people relations,” KNRP spokesman Zakaria Maulana Arif told Arab News.
“We’ve been raising awareness among the Indonesian public about the problems faced by the Palestinian people,” he added.
“We’ve held concerts (to raise funds for Palestinians) in major cities in almost every main island in the country.”
One such concert in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan province, in 2015 raised 1 billion Indonesian rupiah ($70,000), Arif said. “We had people donating their assets such as land, cars and jewelry for us to auction.”
Indonesian FM on foreign tour in support of Palestine
Indonesian FM on foreign tour in support of Palestine
Poland charges six with trying to smuggle sanctioned equipment to Russia
WARSAW: Four Belarusians and two Poles were detained and charged with attempting to smuggle to Russia devices used to automate the production of integrated circuits, used, among others, in the assembly of combat drones, Polish prosecutors said.
Warsaw has been warning of Russian and Belarusian attempts to destabilize countries backing Ukraine after Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022.
On Wednesday, Polish prosecutors said the suspects were detained on February 18 and charged with attempting to smuggle through Belarus strategically significant equipment, which is under sanctions and which could be used in the production of military technology.
“Violation of the provisions of the sanctions act is classified as a crime, punishable by imprisonment for a period of no less than three years,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Three suspects were placed in pretrial detention for a period of three months, while the remaining three were placed under police supervision, bail, and a ban on leaving the country.
“Earlier actions by officers of the National Revenue Administration helped thwart an attempt to smuggle a machine, which contributed to the disruption of potential supplies of military equipment to the troops of the Russian Federation operating in eastern Ukraine,” prosecutors said.
