Lukashenka supplies weapons to Assad

Russia, Iran and Belarus are Syria's top arms suppliers.

The information is contained in the report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). SIPRI has released the data on international transfers  of major conventional weapons for the period 2008 – 2012. Experts' calculations are based on the average data for the five-year period.

According to SIPRI, the largest supplier of major conventional weapons for the past 5 years to Syria, which is mired in a civil war, was Russia (71% of Syria's import).

The second largest arms supplies to Syria was Iran (14% of Syria's import) followed by Belarus (11%), North Korea (3%) and China (1%).

Syria mostly imported aircraft, air defence systems and missiles. All weapons were delivered to Bashar al-Assad's government. There are no confirmations that arms were supplied to Syrian rebels.

The top five arms exporters for the period 2008 – 2012 are the United States (30% of global arms export), Russia (26%), Germany (7%), France (6%) and China (5%).

The report mentioned Belarus as exporter of aircraft to Sudan.

In the photo: Lukashenka and Assad in Minsk, 2010 (Nikolai Petrov, BelTA)