BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/05/2007

Presidents of Iran, Belarus pledge solidarity in face of pressure from West

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: The president of Iran pledged solidarity with Belarus on Tuesday in the face of foreign pressure, talking tough following two days of meetings between leaders at odds with the West.

"Countries that try to pursue a policy of hegemony will have to surrender before the strong will of our peoples," Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said after a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart at a national library in the capital, Minsk.

"We will not give in to the pressure they are trying to place upon us," said Ahmadinejad, whose country is locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program, which the United States and other nations fear is a front for an effort to develop atomic weapons.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is a pariah in the United States and the European Union, which have imposed travel bans and financial sanctions on him and officials over the government's treatment of opponents in the ex-Soviet republic.

"Some think that two states that are so-called outcasts are meeting. You are confused or distort the truth," Lukashenko said of the Iranian president's visit. "No matter what they call us, we are satisfied with our agreements."

A staunch critic of the West, Lukashenko railed mainly against Moscow's influence Tuesday, saying Iran would help Belarus decrease its economic reliance on the EU and on Russia - which provides it with nearly all its energy supplies and is a major trade partner.

"Today we are very dependent on Russia and the EU for sales of our products," Lukashenko said. He said Ahmadinejad had vowed that Iran would "buy world-class Belarusian products at acceptable prices. We are satisfied with that."

Referring to Russia, which sharply raised natural gas prices for Belarus this year and moved to decrease its revenues from refining Russian oil, Lukashenko said that "massive dependence on a single state for energy supplies is a problem for us. We asked the Iranian side to help solve this problem."

A joint communique released Monday indicated the countries would cooperate in development of an Iranian oil field and other petroleum-industry projects. It also said they would seek to increase the annual volume of bilateral trade from about US$35 million (?26 million) to US$500 million (?370 million).

Lukashenko said Monday that the two countries had a "strategic partnership" and Ahmadinejad hailed the "huge potential" for cooperation.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/22/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Iran.php