Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has actually openly backed ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as an enduring ally.
Evidence suggests that he has actually likewise supported Assads opponents.Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, rebel forces likely indirectly received weapons from Belarus to fight versus the routine: Weapons provided by Belarus to Bulgaria in 2015 were consequently moved to the U.S.
and Saudi Arabia.
Americans were trained in Belarus on how to use them, while a U.S.
military official stated the U.S.
was acquiring missiles from Belarus to equip the Syrian opposition.In 2015, Belarus sent out 240 ATGW 9P135M Konkurs (NATO: AT-5 Spandrel) portable anti-tank rocket systems and 140 AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers worth a total of 37.9 million euros to Bulgaria.The same year, Sofia moved 136 Konkurs systems to the U.S.
and another 80 to Saudi Arabia.
Professionals state the Soviet-made Konkurs weapons were of no use to the American or the Saudi armies.During the same period, the U.S.
was implementing a program to equip the Syrian opposition.A representative of the U.S.
Special Operations Command, Lt.
Com.
Matthew Allen, informed BuzzFeed in 2015 that the Pentagon was purchasing rockets from Belarus for its program to equip the Syrian opposition.Email correspondence exposes military instructors from American defense business Regulus Global were trained in Belarus to utilize such rocket systems.
This emerged throughout an examination into the death of among these instructors in Bulgaria due to a training school accident.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) recognized Regulus Global as a Pentagon contractor.At the exact same time, Lukashenko has repeatedly revealed his support for Assads program.
After reports emerged that Assad had run away to Moscow on Sunday, Lukashenko said he had great relations with the ousted Syrian leader.He is not a totalitarian at all.
He dealt with individuals as a doctor.
He never ever killed anyone, Lukashenko stated Tuesday throughout a working journey to Borisov, a city near Minsk.These were not Minsks initially words of support for Assad.
In July 2019, Lukashenko stated: Belarus has actually been on the side of the people and authorities of this country considering that the first days of the dispute in Syria.
In response, he received the Syrian leaders appreciation for support throughout a hard period.In 2018, when the U.S., Britain and France carried out airstrikes in Syria in reaction to a chemical attack on Douma, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry condemned the airstrikes, questioning whether the Syrian program had actually undoubtedly used chemical weapons.On Nov.
27, 2024, Syrian opposition armed groups released a large-scale offensive against routine forces in Aleppo province.
By the evening of Dec.
7, Assads challengers had actually taken control of several major cities, including Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Hama and Homs.
The next day, they got here in Damascus and Assad resigned as president of Syria.This short article was initially published by the Belarusian Investigative Center.