JAKARTA: A fast-track clearance for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims — known as the “Makkah Route” — has been opened at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta airport.
The initiative comes as the first groups of pilgrims left from six Indonesian cities, including the capital.
Indonesian and Saudi officials, including Osama bin Mohammed Al-Shuaibi, the Kingdom’s ambassador to Indonesia, were present at the official launch of the fast-track facility on Tuesday.
Airport operator Angkasa Pura has installed 20 booths to process Hajj pilgrims, with each counter manned by two Saudi immigration officers.
“This is the first time the immigration process has taken place in Jakarta, so they will not have to go through custom clearance on arrival in Saudi Arabia and can go directly to their buses, which will take them to their accommodation, while their luggage will be handled and delivered directly to their respective hotels,” Al-Shuaibi said.
“This is a step to improve our Hajj services. We have introduced it this year at Jakarta, where about 60,000 pilgrims are expected to depart. We will introduce it in four cities next time and eventually we hope to introduce it all Hajj embarkations in Indonesia,” he said.
The envoy said that about 400 pilgrims underwent the fast-track clearance in an hour at the airport on Tuesday.
“We appreciate King Salman’s initiative that makes the pilgrims’ journey much easier. It shows that we have a deep and close relation,” Indonesia’s Minister of Social Affairs, Idrus Marham, said.
Director-General of Hajj and Umrah at the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Nizar Ali, said that 4,486 pilgrims had left from Surakarta, Surabaya, Jakarta, Padang, Makassar and Lombok. Up to 221,000 pilgrims are expected to leave Indonesia this year, with the last departure on Aug. 14.
Garuda, the Indonesian airline, expects to fly as many as 108,000 pilgrims in 280 groups from around the country.
Among the 393 pilgrims who left Jakarta was 91-year-old Mohammad Hasan Saad, from East Jakarta, the oldest person in the group.
Hanif Fakri, a member of the medical staff assisting the group, said this was his second pilgrimage, this time by carrying out the task as a medical officer, after his first Hajj in 2012.
Hanafi bin Dogol, a 50-year-old pilgrim from East Jakarta, told Arab News that he had been on a seven-year waiting list waiting for his chance to go on Hajj.
“I have been practicing and learning the rituals. I hope I can accomplish the pilgrimage in the most favorable manner,” he said.
Fast track to Hajj on Jakarta’s Makkah Route Initiative
https://arab.news/vst2t
Fast track to Hajj on Jakarta’s Makkah Route Initiative
- A fast-track clearance for Indonesian Hajj pilgrims has been opened at Jakarta’s Soekarno Hatta airport
- The initiative comes as the first groups of pilgrims left from six Indonesian cities, including the capital
Amr Moussa: Saudi Arabia and Egypt must lead Arabs for true peace
RIYADH: Amr Moussa, former Arab League secretary-general, has called for the establishment of an effective Arab leadership led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in partnership with Jordan, to unify regional positions and negotiate on the Palestinian cause and broader regional future.
During a panel discussion at the King Fahd National Library in Riyadh on Thursday evening, Moussa stressed this was “both vital and achievable” and emphasized the primary goal should be the establishment of a fully sovereign and effective Palestinian state: “True peace is only that which protects all parties … we need genuine peace, not a facade or a superficial justification,” he said.
Such a state must be “responsible for security and peace in the Middle East alongside its neighbors,” rather than a fragile entity, he added.
Moussa underlined that achieving this objective first requires the Arab world to demonstrate the capacity for unified and decisive action. “Are we as Arabs truly capable of being ‘we,’ or has that moment passed?” he asked.
He said the firm positions taken by Saudi Arabia and Egypt in rejecting forced displacement and calling for an end to aggression “underscore that it is possible to assert ‘no’ when the Arab stance is justified.”
Warning of the severe consequences of maintaining the status quo, he added: “If things continue this way … there will inevitably be something akin to October 7 again, because injustice breeds resistance.”
He placed full responsibility on Israel, saying it “bears complete responsibility for the chaos and destruction.”
On a practical mechanism to implement a unified Arab stance, Moussa proposed that Saudi Arabia and Egypt take the lead in establishing a diplomatic baseline, representing their “yeses and noes” in consultation with other Arab states. This framework, he said, would counter any attempts to impose unjust solutions under labels such as the new international “Peace Council,” which might “demand Palestinian concessions on Palestinian land.”
On whether peace was possible with the current Israeli government, which he described as “not committed to peace,” Moussa said: “There are other Israelis who speak the language of peace.” He urged efforts to “identify and support them to create a political alternative within Israel.”
He said the first thing Palestinians should do is hold comprehensive Palestinian elections as soon as possible, utilizing technology to ensure all Palestinians took part, including those in Jerusalem, to select a new leadership “with strong negotiating legitimacy.”
Moussa also warned that the challenges “are not limited to Palestine,” saying the Arab world faces interconnected crises in Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Lebanon and Libya, alongside shifts in the international order and the race for space.
“The issue of our future (requires) reviving a new Arab world,” capable of actively shaping that future rather than being marginalized, the former secretary-general concluded.
