Iran Building Cars in Belarus

(Tehran, Iran) I was somewhat surprised that Iran is outsourcing a portion of its industrial base. I think that's what is happening.

From Xinhuanet.com:

A new assembly plant for Iranian-designed cars has been inaugurated by Iranian Minister of Industries Ali-Reza Tahmasbi in the Belorussian capital of Minsk, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

The assembly line for "Samands," a model of passenger car of Iran's Khodro Industrial Group, the biggest automobile manufacturing company in the Middle East, was inaugurated in the Unison Company in Minsk on Friday.

The plant will assemble up to 1,000 Iranian-designed "Samands" car by year's end, and up to 6,000 by next year, according to the report.

Frankly, this is all news to me. I didn't know that Iran had a car design and manufacturing company and I didn't know that Belarus, according to Tahmasbi, has "valuable car manufacturing experience."

Nevertheless, I propose that the Belorussian/Iranian venture will likely not be a big success. There is a large element of contrariness between the warmed-over communist kleptocrats of Belarus and the authoritarian Islamist mullahs of Iran. I don't foresee a smooth working relationship.