Minister of Foreign Affairs Sugiono ensures that Indonesian troops in ISF do not carry out military operations, disarmament and demilitarization.

JAKARTA - Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono has confirmed that Indonesian troops who will be included in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) will not carry out military operations, disarmament and demilitarization during their mission in the Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington D.C., United States, Friday local time, Foreign Minister Sugiono said "the implementation instructions of the ISF mandate allow participating countries to provide or contribute their troops to the ISF, to provide a more rigid limit than what has been issued through the Security Council Resolution (UN). "

"This means that we have the opportunity to convey what are our national caveats (limitations on the involvement of Indonesian troops), we have conveyed to the ISF. We do not conduct military operations, we do not disarm, we do not do what is called demilitarization," said the Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs, quoted from the President's Secretariat YouTube, Saturday (21/2)

"What we do is to protect the civilian population on both sides, engage in humanitarian efforts there and of course there are things that are the rules of engagement, which we can do as troops if we are attacked in order to defend ourselves," he added.

Regarding the appointment of Indonesia as Deputy Commander of the ISF, Foreign Minister Sugiono explained, Indonesia received trust and honor as the Deputy Commander of the operations sector. He explained, in addition to the ISF Forces Commander held by the United States, there are three deputy commanders.

"This is an honor and an appreciation for Indonesia's track record, the reputation of Indonesian soldiers in various peacekeeping fields and I think this position will be able to facilitate what our goal and intention is to send troops in the ISF," he explained.

Foreign Minister Sugiono emphasized that this trust had nothing to do with the existence or non-existence of diplomatic relations between Indonesia and Israel.

According to him, the ISF is a force "that has a mandate to maintain peace, consisting of various elements, whose main task is to maintain the situation."

Regarding the plan to send troops, he said it would be done gradually, but said there were no further details.

"There are about five sectors, it is estimated that the (forces from a number of countries) there are 20 thousand or maybe more in all sectors, but this is progressive," he said.

It is known that President Prabowo Subianto, while attending the first meeting of the Peace Council in Washington D.C. on Thursday, said Indonesia was ready to send at least 8,000 troops to join the ISF.

The deployment of the ISF coincides with the start of the second phase of the Gaza peace announced last month. The delivery of the ISF is also mentioned in Point 7 of UN Security Council Resolution 2803, in which the ISF is tasked with stabilizing security, securing humanitarian corridors until permanent disarmament of non-state armed groups.