Indonesian legislators against ties with Israel

Indonesia should not establish diplomatic ties with Israel until Israel settles its conflict with Arab countries, including Palestine, an Indonesian legislator said in Jakarta Wednesday.

Indonesian news agency ANTARA quoted the deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' commission on foreign affairs, Abu Hasan Sazili, as saying his country should stick to this firm attitude.

"If Israel really wants to establish diplomatic ties with Indonesia, our absolute condition is that Israel should release the Arab territories which it continues to occupy," he said.

House Commission II chairman, Faisal Basyir, meanwhile said the House' United Development Party Faction (FPP), to which he belongs, rejects the establishment of ties with Israel, because Israel's occupation of Arab states is intolerable and is against the preamble of Indonesia's 1945 constitution.

Basyir stressed that Indonesia cannot accept Israel's treatment of Arab states.