BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/05/2007

Iranian president to visit Belarus May 21-22

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit Belarus, whose president is a vehement opponent of the United States and the West, on Monday and Tuesday.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry said the main issues to be discussed during the visit concern energy, trade and science.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who visited Iran in November, is widely referred to in the West as "Europe's last dictator" for his crackdown on opposition and independent news media in the former Soviet republic. Under Lukashenko, the economy remains largely under Soviet-style state control.

Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich said Friday that developing close relations between Ahmadinejad and Lukashenko "could be dangerous because both politicians pursue an aggressive anti-Western policy."

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/18/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Iran.php