BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
01/06/2009
Israeli foreign minister set to visit Russia, Belarus
Author : DPA
Tel Aviv - Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was scheduled to leave for Moscow Monday afternoon, as part of a four-day visit to Russia and Belarus. In Moscow, Lieberman, who was born in the former Soviet Union, is scheduled to meet with President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, an Israeli Foreign Ministry statement said.
He is slated to continue to Minsk on Thursday, for talks with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov.
The leader of the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu coalition party, who lives in a Jewish settlement on the occupied West Bank and is controversial because of his hardline, outspoken views, made his first journey abroad as foreign minister in early May, visiting Rome, Paris, Prague and Berlin.
On that tour, he received a relatively cold welcome. Being accorded no public news conferences, his hosts largely made due with issuing written statements instead.
Lieberman, 50, however hopes to use his Moldovan roots to upgrade ties with the former Soviet Union bloc and eastern Europe.
The Foreign Ministry said he plans, among others, to express Israel's concern over Iran's nuclear programme, which it called "a severe geopolitical threat to Israel and the entire region."
The statement praised bilateral relations between Israel and Moscow, which it said were "developing and expanding at an accelerated pace." Iran however is one, crucial, issue on which the two differ. While Israel has made preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear capabilities a top priority, Russia has been a key arms supplier to Iran.
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