[caption id="attachment_151608" align="alignright" width="207"] Iran's FM Zarif meets Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk[/caption]
MINSK, Feb. 17 (MNA) – Belarusian president has condemned and played down western sanctions on Iran as inefficient.
 Alexander Lukashenko received Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday in Minsk where he believed that Belarus and Iran enjoyed very high level of bilateral relations and proposed that the economic relations should reach the same level.

“We have great capacities in economy and could use products of both countries as exchange,” said Lukashenko.


He attached great importance on Zarif’s visit to the country ‘in this specific time.’ Belarusian president condemned and played down western sanctions on Iran as inefficient; he welcomed Iranian investments in Belarus economic sectors and said that Belarus would guarantee the Iranian investments return in the country.


Iran’s Javad Zarif denounced all international sanctions and economic pressures on Iran by western countries as illegitimate and as violating international law; “nevertheless, Iran and Belarus could extend their trade and business,” Zarif noted.


The meeting examined the subjects to be addressed in joint cooperation commission in near future in Tehran. Zarif also paid tribute to those who were killed during World War II in Minsk main central square.


Zarif also will open the new building of Islamic Republic of Iran’s embassy in Minsk and will address the embassy staff and their families in the occasion of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and will finally depart for Tehran.


By Mehr News Agency