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Tehran searches for allies in Muslim world By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta and Gareth Smyth in Tehran Published: May 10 2006 01:34 | Last updated: May 10 2006 01:34 [Iran] Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, Iranian president, under pressure from the west over his country's nuclear programme, last night began a three day visit to Indonesia in a bid to reach out to the Muslim world. He will meet business, political, and religious leaders ahead of a weekend summit in Bali of the "D8" group of developing countries with Muslim majority populations. Iran is trying to build stronger economic and trade ties with China and Asia in general, something Iranian officials believe that Indonesia and Malaysia Asian countries with predominantly Muslim populations could facilitate. But Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's visit appears most focused on wooing the people of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, where he will readily find sympathisers, given the deep suspicions many Indonesians have about US policy in the Middle East. Indonesia has said it backs Iran's right to develop nuclear energy and wants more time for a search for a diplomatic solution to the stand-off. But Hassan Wirajuda, foreign minister, said yesterday Jakarta wanted Iran "to be more transparent in its programme". "People [in Indonesia] in general sympathise with him," said Azyumardi Azra, the prominent rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, where Mr Ahmadi-Nejad is to meet students tomorrow on Thursday. Many Indonesians, Mr Azra said, consider it an "injustice" that Israel is allowed to have nuclear weapons while international efforts are under way to stop Iran from developing them. Indonesia and Iran are today expected to sign a deal to develop an oil refinery in Java worth up to $5bn (£3bn) to be fed largely by Iranian crude and targeting China and other Asian markets. The signing is scheduled to come during a meeting in Jakarta between Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad and his Indonesian counterpart, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and alongside a broader energy co-operation agreement between the two countries. Tehran signed in 2004 a memorandum of understanding for a 25-year, $100bn gas and oil deal with China, and hopes shortly to agree a plan for a gas pipeline to India through Pakistan. The proposed 300,000- barrel-per-day refinery would be located in Java and start production in 2010 with the intent that 70 per cent of its output would go to China or other Asian markets, according to Rudy Radjab, chief executive of El Nusa, a subsidiary of Indonesian state oil company Pertamina. Under the deal to be signed today a minimum of 100,000 b/d of crude would be provided by Iran for the project for 20 years, according to Mr Radjab. The $4bn-$5bn in financing needed has yet to be lined up, however, and whether or not the project the latest incarnation of a long-stalled plan to develop a refinery in east Java will ever go ahead remains unclear. Mr Ahmadi-Nejad will be following a well-trodden route in Jakarta. The president's schedule looks much like those of Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, or Tony Blair, UK prime minister, both of whom visited earlier this year in bids to be seen to be engaging a moderate Muslim democracy. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away. 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