BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/01/2008

Belarus denies plans to sell missiles to Iran

MINSK (Reuters) -- Ex-Soviet Belarus dismissed as laughable on Friday a report by intelligence journal Jane's that it was ready to sell Iran two missile systems for 140 million dollars.

Jane's on Thursday said Belarus, a fierce critic of the United States, was in the final stages of negotiations with Tehran over the sale of Soviet-era S-300PT air defense systems. The report quoted Belarusian defense sources.

"This is untrue. Such information can only induce laughter," said a spokesman for Belarus's security council. "There are no grounds for the story and no grounds for any sale."

The S-300 missiles have a longer range than the TOR-M1 surface-to-air missiles which Russia said earlier this year it had delivered to Tehran under a $1 billion contract.

Source:

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=161525