PBNU Backs Indonesia’s Use of the BoP for Peace, likening it to digging a hole with a spoon

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com — Chairman (Ketum) of PBNU Yahya Cholil Staquf has urged President Prabowo Subianto to capitalise on Indonesia’s membership of the Board of Peace (BoP) to pursue peace efforts involving the United States and Iran. ‘We will find a way to utilise BoP for those peace efforts. Whatever is in our hands, let us use it,’ the senior Nahdlatul Ulama figure, known as Gus Yahya, told reporters at the Presidential Palace Complex in Central Jakarta on Thursday (5 March 2026). He likened the move to digging a hole with a spoon if one lacks a shovel. ‘If we need to dig a hole and there is no shovel, if what we have is a spoon, we dig with a spoon, more or less like that. Do not abandon something that seems weak when it could actually be used; that’s not the way. We use anything because the pursuit of peace is absolute,’ he said. ‘Stop the war, stop fighting, peace now. There is no alternative. Because otherwise no one will be saved. There is no one who will be saved. We must stop; this violence must be halted immediately by any means possible,’ he added.

Regarding condolences to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Gus Yahya expressed appreciation for Indonesia’s message of condolence. The condolence was written in a letter and delivered by Foreign Minister Sugiono via the Iranian Embassy in Jakarta, it was reported. ‘I suppose it’s proper to offer condolences when someone dies. But NU also conveys condolences, of course. Beyond that, the rest is an all-out effort to stop the violence and realise peace,’ he said.