Foreign Minister Assures Indonesian Mission in Palestine Accomplished

Jakarta, (Antara) - Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi assured that Indonesia's mission to inaugurate Maha Abu-Shusheh, Indonesia's first-ever lady honorary consul to Palestine, has been accomplished.

"As you can see, (it is) mission accomplished. Regardless of everything that Israel did to prevent me from entering Ramallah, we could still manage to ensure that the inauguration of Indonesian honorary consul to Ramallah in our embassy in Amman, Jordan, proceeded smoothly," she said.

The minister was speaking after having accompanied President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to meet the Belgium delegates at the National Palace on Tuesday.

Initially, Minister Retno and her entourage were scheduled to officially meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riyadh Al-Maliki, as well as to open an honorary consulate in Ramallah, Palestine.

But on Sunday morning (March 13), Israeli authorities refused to give her a visa for entering the Palestine region.

Already anticipating such a challenge, Minister Retno and her team decided that the most appropriate decision will be to inaugurate the honorary consul in the Indonesian Embassy in Amman, Jordan.

"We took the best decision that we had thought over before departing for Ramallah, because I was given a mission to inaugurate the honorary consul," she stated.

The inauguration was also attended by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh Al-Maliki who undertook an overland trip from Ramallah to Amman.

In addition, Minister Retno did not feel any need to speak to the Israeli government regarding the Indonesian honorary consulate in Ramallah since it was a matter between Indonesian and Palestine.

President Jokowi, she said, was satisfied that the mission was carried out perfectly as one of Indonesia's foreign policy achievements.(*)