BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

04/06/2009

Belarus leader seeks Israeli help to mend ties with West

MINSK (AFP) - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday sought help from Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to mend his country's ties with the West.

Lieberman praised a newfound Belarussian willingness to acknowledge the World War II Holocaust on Belarussian territory, while hinting at the displeasure Belarus's ties with Iran have caused Israel.

"We really supported you and your party and closely watched the elections in Israel," Lukashenko told Lieberman, referring to Israeli elections in February.

"I would be glad if you could use your personal weight and authority in Israel to help normalise Belarus's relations not only with Europe but with America," Lukashenko said, quoted by his press service.

The Belarussian leader -- accused by Europe of human rights abuses and dubbed Europe's "last dictator" by the United States -- has recently made overtures to the West.

He has released prominent political prisoners and met with Pope Benedict XVI in April on a visit to Italy and the Vatican.

Lukashenko was criticised by Israel for an anti-Semitic comment in October 2007, a month after he visited Israel's arch-enemy Iran to oversee an oil field deal.

Speaking to reporters, Lieberman praised new interest on the part of Belarus in commemorating the Holocaust that wiped out hundreds of thousands of Jews on the territory that now comprises this east European country.

But he said he had raised the subject of Belarus's ties with Iran, whose president was received with full honours on a visit here in 2007.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly cast doubt on the Holocaust and ignored the issue on what was a rare visit to a country that was at the centre of the killings.

"Undoubtedly I raised this," Lieberman said, referring to Belarus's ties with Iran.

"For us it's very sensitive.... We consider any attempt to rewrite history unacceptable, above all the history of World War II and complete denial of the Holocaust," Lieberman said.

Belarus in October made a new effort to commemorate the Holocaust on its territory, unveiling a monument in the former Minsk ghetto from where over 100,000 Jews were taken to their deaths.

Source:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090604/wl_mideast_afp/belarusisraeldiplomacy_20090604165659

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