Zulhas Calls Israel-US Attack on Iran Barbaric, Triggering Global Energy Crisis

Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Zulkifli Hasan, assesses that the Israeli and United States attack on Iran has caused a global energy crisis. According to him, the conflict does not only impact the Middle East but also extends to Europe and ASEAN.

Zulhas—as Zulkifli Hasan is known—admits that he sometimes has trouble sleeping when seeing the current geopolitical conflicts. According to him, the conflicts happening today are truly beyond human reason. He even described the attack as a barbaric act.

“I sometimes, Mr Hatta (Hatta Rajasa, former PAN chairman), have trouble sleeping. Seeing America-Israel attacking Iran, it’s hard to sleep. It’s beyond reason, beyond human bounds. I think it’s barbaric, especially now against Palestine in Gaza,” he said while opening the PAN 2026 National Conference at the PAN DPP Office on Tuesday (31/3/2026).

According to him, Indonesia cannot do much to prevent the conflict occurring in the Middle East. He assesses that what can be done now is only to pray that the conflict can end soon.

“And we can’t do anything except pray. That makes us unable to, hard to sleep,” he said.

Zulhas stated that the conflict in the Middle East impacts various parts of the world, including ASEAN. Even, several countries have announced energy emergency states.

“If we look again, Pakistan and India are starting to queue up. Even blackouts. In Latin America, there are blackouts, people riding bicycles because there’s no petrol anymore,” he said.

Nevertheless, according to him, Indonesia has anticipated the impact of that conflict. This is because President Prabowo Subianto has long predicted that war would occur, so since the beginning of his term, he has always instructed his apparatus to strengthen food and energy self-sufficiency.

“This is what Mr Prabowo has repeatedly conveyed, even at that time we sometimes doubted it. Well, now it’s proven,” said Zulhas, who is also the Coordinating Minister for Food. Therefore, he assesses that efforts for food and energy self-sufficiency must continue to be strengthened amid the current geopolitical conditions, including through downstreaming efforts. Especially since the current geopolitical conflict cannot be predicted when it will end.

“We don’t know when this situation will end. Australia, which is strong and great, is now releasing emergency petrol and diesel reserves. Therefore, brothers and sisters. We are grateful, once again, to have a president whose vision far exceeds that time,” he said.