M. Syaifullah, Jakarta – The joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on Saturday prompted Nur Rachmat Yuliantoro, Professor of the Department of International Relations at Gadjah Mada University (UGM), to urge Indonesia to immediately withdraw from the Board of Peace (BoP) established by US President Donald Trump.
He said that President Prabowo Subianto had once said that Indonesia could withdraw from the BoP if Palestinian independence was not achieved.
"However, before that goal could be realized, the US and Israel attacked Iran. This makes us question the credibility and legitimacy of the BoP, whose main actors are actually opening a new major conflict in the Middle East," Rachmat said when contacted by Tempo via text message on Saturday evening.
"Peace," he said, has become a distant prospect, making the international forum seem ironic.
"This is where I feel Indonesia needs to withdraw from its membership in the BoP because of the breach in credibility and legitimacy," he emphasized.
Rachmat also criticized the Indonesian Foreign Ministry's statement that failed to condemn the US-Israeli attack on Iran and only offered to mediate renegotiations.
"With all due respect to our diplomats, they should have issued a stronger statement. An unprovoked attack on a sovereign nation is a violation of international law," he said.
"The US and Israel, for the umpteenth time, have deliberately become the actors who started the war. So this is not just about the need to exercise restraint and continue negotiations. Indonesia must demonstrate a firm stance that always sides with peace."
This is the second time the US and Israel have attacked Iran during negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program.
This attack comes just days after the third round of indirect talks between US and Iranian delegations in Geneva, Switzerland, this week, which discussed Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
After the talks, there was optimism from Oman and Iran.
Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who acted as mediator, reported "significant progress" in the negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated that both sides demonstrated seriousness and were getting closer to an agreement on certain issues.
However, like the attack last June, the US and Israel again attacked Iran during the nuclear negotiations.
As reported by Al Jazeera, an Israeli strike hit a girls' elementary school in Minab, a city in Hormozgan province, southern Iran, killing 108 people.
Mizan News Agency, the official news agency of the judiciary, reported the death toll from the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in Minab amid a massive US-Israeli offensive launched early Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi shared photos of the attack, which he said destroyed the girls' school and killed "innocent children."
"This crime against the Iranian people will not go unpunished," Araghchi wrote in a post on X.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei also condemned the "blatant crime" and urged action from the UN Security Council.
Separately, Iran's Mehr news agency reported that at least two students were killed in another Israeli strike that hit a school east of the capital, Tehran.