Belarusian, Iranian military information chiefs meet in Minsk

August 14, Pozirk. Maj. Gen. Leanid Kasinski, ideology department head at the Belarusian defense ministry, and Mojtaba Abdolmaleki, media department head at the Iranian General Staff, discussed cooperation in the information sphere at a meeting in Minsk yesterday.

On the first day of its stay in Belarus, the Iranian delegation visited the defense ministry’s VoyenTV station and the Belarusian Great Patriotic War Museum, defense ministry said.

That is the third meeting between Belarusian and Iranian defense officials in the last two weeks.

On August 7, Air/Air Defense Commander Andrej Łukjanovič met with his Iranian counterpart Hamid Vahedi in Tehran.

In late July, Iranian defense officials and their colleagues in Minsk discussed prospects for cooperation in the field of engineering support.

In May, Iran’s military attaché to Russia, Reza Khosravi Moghaddam, was accredited by the defense ministry, becoming the first Iranian military diplomat to receive accreditation since the establishment of relations between Minsk and Tehran in 1993.

A Belarusian military delegation took part in a command and staff exercise in Iran the same month.

In April, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktar Chenin pledged readiness to “develop and strengthen” cooperation with Iran at the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Ashtiani in Astana.

For his part, Ashtiani said that Iran and Belarus agree on key regional and international issues and have always supported each other’s positions.

He emphasized that the two countries have great potential in the military and defense sectors, and expressed readiness for closer cooperation with Minsk.

The current visit comes amid Tehran’s threats to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Haniyeh died in an airstrike on the Iranian capital on July 31, the Islamist group said, blaming Israel for the killing that risked escalating into a wider regional war.

Also read: Belarusian Air/Air Defense Force commander in Iran