Indonesia ready to send peacekeepers to Gaza

Indonesia is prepared to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza if necessary, President-elect Prabowo Subianto said.

He made this statement during a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the G20 summit, Caliber.Az reports citing Indonesian media.

Prabowo reaffirmed Indonesia's commitment to supporting United Nations efforts and expressed the country's readiness to contribute peacekeeping forces if a ceasefire is achieved and a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission is established.

While Guterres did not specifically comment on Indonesia's peacekeeping proposal, he praised Indonesia as an "extremely strategic and valuable partner" to the UN, highlighting the alignment of both sides on key global issues.

Prabowo first proposed Indonesia’s involvement in a peacekeeping mission at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June. However, Indonesia's participation would only occur if requested by the UN. The idea of deploying peacekeepers to Gaza was also discussed by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who expressed support for the mission.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour, however, stated in July that the timing for such a mission was not right, as Palestine was still focused on ending the ongoing conflict.

As of the weekend, the Gaza Health Ministry reported that at least 43,846 people had been killed in the conflict, which has been ongoing for over a year between Hamas militants and Israeli forces.

Indonesia is one of the leading contributors to UN peacekeeping operations, with nearly 2,740 Indonesian personnel currently serving in various missions worldwide.

By Vafa Guliyeva