Jakarta. The visiting UN Committee that is in charge of promoting Palestinian rights said Thursday that it had high expectations for Indonesia’s next administration set to be led by the current defense minister Prabowo Subianto. 

Members of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) -- a body under the UN General Assembly -- are visiting Jakarta to meet Indonesian government officials. Speaking to reporters shortly after talking with Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, the committee considered Indonesia a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause. Indonesia’s support did not only come only recently as the Southeast Asian country was among the first ones to recognize Palestinian statehood in 1988.

“The support started decades ago when the [CEIRPP] committee was first formed in 1975, and Indonesia got admitted as a member,” CEIRPP’s chairman Cheikh Niang told a press briefing in Jakarta on Thursday. 

The Senegalese diplomat said that it would be unlikely to see the support weaken in the coming years, considering how the pro-Palestinian view is not only coming from Indonesian government officials but “all segments of the nation”. As Indonesia inches closer to a shift in presidency, the committee wants to see the incoming Indonesian government keep backing Palestine. 

“We are really looking forward to the next administration … to build on what has been done by the previous administration, and maintain the leadership of Indonesia in defending the cause of the Palestinians,” Niang added. 

Prabowo is set to assume power this October, succeeding the two-term incumbent president Joko “Jokowi'' Widodo. Prabowo not long ago said Indonesia would be ready to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza if required. The committee is scheduled to meet with Prabowo during their Jakarta visit. The CEIRPP, however, stopped short of sharing the details of what they planned on discussing with Prabowo, saying that some matters were confidential. 

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