Belarus denies plans to sell Syria, Iran weapons
rhsukarsa
May 8, 2009, Minsk -- The Belarusian president denied on Friday the country had any plans to sell weapons to Syria or Iran.
Earlier this month some Russian and foreign media reported Belarus was planning to sell S-300 surface-to-air missiles and Iskander tactical missile systems to Iran, and said that Tehran had arranged to transfer some of the systems to Syria.
"As far as S-300 and Iskander [missiles] are concerned, these complexes cannot be exported without my approval. There is not a single contract or project related to these systems that I have been asked to approve. This is utter nonsense," Alexander Lukashenko said.
He added that Belarus "has no Iskander missiles, while S-300s are all in operational service."
The latest version of the S-300 family is the S-300PMU2 Favorit, which has a range of up to 195 kilometers (about 120 miles) and can intercept aircraft and ballistic missiles at altitudes from 10 meters to 27 kilometers.
The Iskander-M system (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage 9M723K1 guided missiles with "quasi-ballistic" capability.
(RIA Novosti)
