REUTERS: Belarus seeks to deepen ties with Iran in all areas including “military-technical cooperation,” state news agency Belta quoted President Alexander Lukashenko as telling his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday.
It said Pezeshkian, on a visit to Belarus, said Iran was ready to help Belarus to “neutralize illegal Western sanctions.”
Belarus and Iran — two countries that have backed Russia’s war in Ukraine — plan to deepen bilateral ties across all areas including defense, their presidents said at talks in Minsk on Wednesday.
Belarusian state news agency Belta said presidents Alexander Lukashenko and Masoud Pezeshkian agreed to work on a strategic partnership treaty.
“In conditions of geopolitical turbulence, Minsk and Tehran are undertaking consistent and balanced steps to further develop cooperation, and are working hard to turn each new challenge into a new opportunity,” it quoted Lukashenko as saying.
“We are ready to discuss any issues, we have no closed topics,” Lukashenko said, adding that the two countries could partner across a range of areas including “military-technical cooperation.”
Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory as a launchpad for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and later assented to hosting Russian tactical nuclear missiles.
Iran has supplied drones to Russia for use in the war and Pezeshkian signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Putin in January, although it did not include a mutual defense clause.
Both Iran and Belarus are under what Pezeshkian described as “illegal Western sanctions.” Belta quoted him as saying Iran was ready to help Belarus “neutralize” such measures, noting that it had more than 40 years of experience in this area.
Pezeshkian said the two countries needed to build their economic and other ties to a level that matched the high level of trust between them.
“Of course, our common views should be implemented in the economic and cultural spheres, in the development of tourism between our countries, and also, as you noted, in the development of military-technical cooperation,” Belta quoted him as telling Lukashenko.
Belarus seeks closer ties with Iran including on defense, Lukashenko says
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Belarus seeks closer ties with Iran including on defense, Lukashenko says
- Pezeshkian, on a visit to Belarus, said Iran was ready to help Belarus to “neutralize illegal Western sanctions“
- Belarus and Iran — two countries that have backed Russia’s war in Ukraine — plan to deepen bilateral ties across all areas including defense
Russian missiles attack port infrastructure near Ukraine’s Odesa, kill seven
- At least 15 people were also injured in the Russian missile strike, said Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba
A Russian missile attack late on Friday on port infrastructure around Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa killed seven people and injured 15, Ukrainian officials said.
“In the late evening, Russia attacked port infrastructure in Odesa region with ballistic missiles,” Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba wrote on Telegram.
Kuleba and Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said that, according to preliminary reports, seven people were killed and 15 injured. A source familiar with the matter said the attack was on Pivdennyi — one of three ports in the area.
Odesa, a focal point of Ukrainian grain and other exports, has been a frequent target of Russian attacks since Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in February 2022.
The intensity of the attacks has increased in recent days. One strike damaged a bridge southwest of Odesa and cut a major route between the city and the Danube River port of Reni and complicated border crossings to Moldova and Romania.
