Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has publicly backed ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as a long-standing ally. However, evidence suggests that he has also supported Assad's opponents.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, rebel forces likely indirectly received weapons from Belarus to fight against the regime: Weapons supplied by Belarus to Bulgaria in 2015 were subsequently transferred to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Americans were trained in Belarus on how to use them, while a U.S. military official said the U.S. was purchasing missiles from Belarus to arm the Syrian opposition.
In 2015, Belarus sent 240 ATGW 9P135M Konkurs (NATO: AT-5 Spandrel) portable anti-tank missile systems and 140 AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers — worth a total of 37.9 million euros — to Bulgaria.
The same year, Sofia transferred 136 Konkurs systems to the U.S. and another 80 to Saudi Arabia. Experts say 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 arm the Syrian opposition.
A representative of the U.S. Special Operations Command, Lt. Com. Matthew Allen, told BuzzFeed in 2015 that the Pentagon was purchasing missiles from Belarus for its program to arm the Syrian opposition.
Email correspondence reveals military instructors from American defense company Regulus Global were trained in Belarus to use such missile systems. This emerged during an investigation into the death of one of these instructors in Bulgaria due to a training ground accident. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) identified Regulus Global as a Pentagon contractor.
At the same time, Lukashenko has repeatedly expressed his support for Assad’s regime. After reports emerged that Assad had fled to Moscow on Sunday, Lukashenko said he had “good relations” with the ousted Syrian leader.
“He is not a dictator at all. He treated people as a doctor. He never killed anyone,” Lukashenko said Tuesday during a working trip to Borisov, a city near Minsk.
These were not Minsk’s first words of support for Assad. In July 2019, Lukashenko said: “Belarus has been on the side of the people and authorities of this country since the first days of the conflict in Syria.” In response, he received the Syrian leader's gratitude for support during a difficult period.
In 2018, when the U.S., Britain and France carried out airstrikes in Syria in response to a chemical attack on Douma, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry condemned the airstrikes, questioning whether the Syrian regime had indeed used chemical weapons.
On Nov. 27, 2024, Syrian opposition armed groups launched a large-scale offensive against regime forces in Aleppo province. By the evening of Dec. 7, Assad's opponents had taken control of several major cities, including Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor, Daraa, Hama and Homs. The next day, they arrived in Damascus and Assad resigned as president of Syria.
This article was originally published by the Belarusian Investigative Center.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
