President Denies Belarus' Arms Sales To Iraq

Asked by reporters, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko said Friday that the USA had no facts confirming Belarus' selling weapons to Iraq. "Believe me, neither we, nor Russia have ever sold weapons to Iraq," said Lukashenko.

He assumed the weapons might have been bought by other countries which later resold them to Iraq but the latter, according to Lukashenko, was armed exclusively with obsolete planes, tanks and anti-aircraft systems. "If our weapons had been available in Iraq, the war would have continued into the present day," remarked Lukashenko. He noted that Belarussian-Russian and Ukrainian armament systems are weapons of the fifth generation.

"The Americans ought not to divert public opinion from the war-erupting problems," said Lukashenko. "They should answer for their deeds." Dealing with reports about the allegedly found documents testifying to Belarussian arms sales to the Saddam Hussein regime, Lukashenko noted that this information had nothing to do with reality. The document to which the mass media refer does not contain any secret information and offers merely a list of weapons being manufactured in Belarus, said Lukashenko. "Indeed, Belarus is an arms manufacturer but it produces only weapons of containment so as to prevent any fists to be shaken at us," said Lukashenko.