RFE/RL based on reporting by 24KZ and Interfax 3 October 2013, 12:02
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has compared the United States with Nazi Germany and slammed Washington's position on Syria.
In an interview with the Kazakh television channel 24KZ in Minsk on October 2, Lukashenka said the United States "considers itself an exceptional nation" that has the right to "force everyone to comply with its standards by bombing other countries."
Lukashenka added that German "exceptionalism" cost 50 million lives in the last century.
Lukashenka also warned against international military intervention in Syria, saying it would have dire consequences.
He praised the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and his son, current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling the latter a close friend and a kind man.
According to Lukashenka, stability in the Arab world is important for the Eurasian Economic Union, a Russia-led project uniting Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan that is scheduled to start functioning in 2015.
