Belarus promises military assistance to Iran :: Charter'97 :: News

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has promised to continue military assistance to Iran. The statement of the Belarusian leader has been made during the meeting with Iranian defense minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar who had arrived to an official visit to Minsk. As said by Lukashenka, cooperation of Minsk with Teheran in the military and technical sphere is at the stage of constant development, and principally in the high technology sphere. He added that Belarus is to fulfill all contracts signed with Iran, not specifying what kind of contracts he meant: armaments deliveries or other deals.

Representatives of official Minsk denied comment on this statement, Associated Press reports.

M. Najjar stated that Belarus occupies a special place in Iranian foreign policy. He also noted that relations of Teheran and Minsk are based on “mutual understanding at the presidents’ level”.

As we have informed, earlier, on May 22, Minsk and Teheran agreed upon development of cooperation in oil and gas sphere. The matter concerns creation of a oil refineries, of oil field and gas development, construction of underground storehouses in Iran with participation of the Belarusian side.

To a great extend Belarus and Iran are close because of their foreign political guiding lines: confrontation with the USA and common interests with Russia. As stated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, relations with Belarus is one of Teheran’s priorities in foreign policy. “We intend to establish stable strategic and brotherly relations,” Iranian president stated. “Iran and Belarus viewpoints on burning issues of international relations agree in many respects, and we view our countries not as contenders, but like partners,” he concluded.