Indonesia deplores Israel actions, urges dialogue

JAKARTA, July 14: Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, lashed out at Israel today for military actions that have killed civilians, and urged the disputing parties to get back to the negotiating table.

Asked about escalating violence in which Israel is now battling militants in both Gaza and Lebanon, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said: ''We deplore the unilateral acts conducted by Israel which have left many victims, including innocent civilians''.

''What we have witnessed in the past few weeks are certainly disproportionate reactions using Israeli military might,'' Wirajuda told reporters.

Separately, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also called on Israel to stop its military action.

''Indonesia is very concerned with the developing situation that is extremely threatening to peace and humanity in that region,'' Yudhoyono told reporters during a visit to tsunami-hit Aceh province.

Hundreds of students protesting over the recent Israeli incursions burned mock flags of the Jewish state and the United States in at least two cities.

Earlier this month, thousands of Indonesians swarmed through Jakarta's main streets condemning Israel's Gaza strikes.

In Israel's most recent actions, its jets blasted the main Beirut-Damascus highway, tightening an air, sea and land blockade of the country, and bombed targets in Beirut's teeming Shi'ite Muslim suburbs, killing three and wounding 40, security sources said. Their deaths brought to 60 the number of people killed in Lebanon since Israel began retaliating for Wednesday's cross-border Hizbollah attack in which two Israeli soldiers were seized. Almost all of the dead were civilians.

The assault on Lebanon coincided with a major Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip aimed at retrieving another captured soldier and halting Palestinian rocket fire.

Wirajuda urged all parties, including the Palestinian authorities, to pursue dialogue and negotiations, and said the U N Security Council should make extra efforts for that to happen.

''The Security Council that has the authority to take corrective steps has been hampered by positions of certain countries that have rendered the council ineffective,'' Wirajuda said.

He did not elaborate, but the United States is frequently odd man out on the Council when it comes to the Middle East and Israel.

Indonesia, 85 per cent of whose 220 million people are Muslims, cooperates closely with Washington in anti-terror efforts in Southeast Asia, but is a strong critic of much of its Middle East policy.

Indonesia has no diplomatic relations with Israel, while it recognises the Palestinian territories government as independent and the latter has an embassy in Jakarta.

REUTERS