House Welcomes Planned Establishment of Hamas Office

Jakarta (Antara) - The House of Representatives (DPR) has welcomed a proposal by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist political organization, to set up a representative office in Jakarta. "The proposal from Hamas that the Government of Indonesia facilitate the opening of its representative office in Jakarta as a Palestinian cultural center should be positively supported," the chairman of House's Commission-I, Mahfudz Siddiq, said here on Saturday. Siddiq opined that the plan indicated the willingness of Hamas to open communications to the outside world, in a bid to encourage a peaceful settlement to the Palestinian problem. He said Hamas opening its representative office would not alter the authority and functions of the Palestinian Embassy in Jakarta. "The presence of Hamas' representative office in Jakarta is believed to ease the communications of the two main political actors in Palestine, Fatah and Hamas," Siddiq remarked. He noted that the move would be good if the Government of Indonesia wished to begin new initiatives among a number of countries to facilitate and mediate the Palestinian national reconciliation process, and the Palestinian-Israeli dialog. According to Siddiq, a third party should be involved in the Palestinian reconciliation, because the countries in the Middle East are experiencing political turbulence. "While the third party must represent the Muslim countries, so in this case Indonesia becomes important in the reconciliation process," Siddiq explained. The DPR leadership on Friday received Hamas representatives who wanted to garner support from the Indonesian government for the Palestinians to achieve their rights. "We support Hamas' plan to set up its representative office in Indonesia, in keeping with what the government of President Joko Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla had expressed during their presidential debate," House deputy speaker Fahri Hamzah remarked. Hamzah said the support was also given on the basis of the 1945 Constitution, which states that Indonesia supports every nation seeking to achieve independence. (*)