Israel alarmed by Ahmadinejad’s visit to Belarus :: Charter'97 :: News

Israel follows the visit of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Belarus with tense interest. Main fears of Jerusalem are not caused by discussions over economic cooperation of the two countries, which is a quite innocent and legitimate topic, but rater by political statements.

As Iranian President announced a thesis about “wipe out Israel from the map of the world”, Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s complimentary words that viewpoint of the Iranian leader “in many respects is consonant with Belarusian vision of the world order”, produced negative emotions in Israel.

As Deutsche Welle has been informed by sources in Israeli Foreign Ministry, the ministry is closely following the program of Iranian president’s visit to Belarus. But while nothing new is expected from Ahmadinejad, Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s words could have influence on bilateral Belarusian-Israeli relations in the future. One should note that over the recent years both Minsk and Jerusalem have invested a lot of effort to bring relations of the two countries to a new level and forget all grievances. Israeli Embassy works in the capital of Belarus again, TV channel “Belarus TV” has started broadcasting to Israel, and a new Ambassador of Belarus to Israel Ihar Lyashchenya is a constant guest at all diplomatic events. That is why the foreign diplomatic agency of Israel expressed hope that the Belarusian leadership would not endanger all positive achievements over the recent period.

At the same time local military analysts express certainty that not only Belarusian tractors and textile export would be discussed at talks in Minsk.

Even after collapse of the Soviet Union Belarus remained a country with high technologic and military potential, a state with modern military technologies. They would be able to interest Teheran which is constantly increasing its military might and modernizes the army.

According to Israeli political analyst Avi Lichman, the variant of Ahmadinejad’s off-the-record asking Lukashenka to become an intermediary in buying newest Russian weapons cannot be excluded. Lukashenka’s assistance in this question would be for Iranians, considering that sanctions of the UN Security council against Iran are in force, and both Iran and Russia cannot effect such transactions openly.

However, most analysts recommend to judge about Iranian delegation’s visit to Belarus by its results. What would be more important for the Belarusian leader, friendship with Ahmadinejad or trust relations with Israel?