RI hails Iran's 'democratic' election

RI hails Iran's 'democratic' election

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Saturday praised Iran for its "democratic"
presidential election but stopped short of commenting on the
victory of hardline former Tehran mayor Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

"The people of Iran deserve to be congratulated for the
tremendous show of support for a democratic electoral process,"
foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told AFP.

"As governance beckons, we are confident that we can continue
to rely on Iran as a force for peace, stability and moderation in
the region and beyond," he said.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country but an
overwhelming majority of its people follow the Sunni branch of
Islam while Iran is Shiite.

Some observers see the election of Ahmadinejad, a self-
proclaimed fundamentalist seeking a return to the moral "purity"
of the early years of the Islamic revolution, could set the
Islamic republic on a collision course with the West. -- AFP