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Belarus President
Aleksandr Lukashenko gave an interview to Sky News Arabia on 19 July, BelTA has
learned.
The interview lasted
for about an hour. The head of state answered the journalist's questions about
the emergency landing of the Ryanair aircraft, whether the president thinks it
was a provocation, and if it was by whom. Special attention was also drawn to
the relations of Belarus with the West and the possibility of the dialogue with
the EU, sanctions and their impact on the country's economy. One of the
questions touched on the topic of illegal migration through Belarus to the
countries of the European Union. Besides, the interviewer asked about Belarus'
participation in the next session of the UN General Assembly.
The channel's chief
news editor, Imad El Atrache, was the interviewer. Born in Lebanon, he
previously worked for Italian state television, Al Jazeera and France 24. He
has covered the fighting in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria, and has interviewed
a number of prominent political and religious figures, including Pope Francis,
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, President of the European Commission
Romano Prodi.
After the interview
with the Belarusian head of state Imad El Atrache shared his impressions with
reporters. In his words, the events which are going on in Belarus are
interesting not only for the audience of the TV channel but also for the people
living in a number of countries where Sky News Arabia is available. “The whole
world and TV viewers in various countries want to know what is going on in your
country since it is on the international agenda,” he said.
“All questions which
I had sent to the Belarusian side during my preparations for the interview were
kept, including those dealing with the internal situation in Belarus, the
detention of Roman Protasevich – all of them remained in the list of questions
for the head of state, and I got answers to them,” the journalist said.
Sky News Arabia is an
Arabic 24-hour rolling news channel broadcast mainly in the Middle East and
North Africa. The channel is broadcast to 50 million households via satellite
and cable providers, the Internet and mobile applications. Sky News Arabia is
headquartered in the Abu Dhabi Free Media Zone.
Written by: belta.by