Lukashenko mocks Obama with mention of slavery

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko took his turn in criticizing the idea of American exceptionalism, while ridiculing President Barack Obama and the African-American population's recent history of slavery.

"Actually, I am quite amazed by Obama. Very recently black people in America were slaves, but today they are making claims to some kind of exceptionalism. I never thought that a man who came from those impoverished layers [of society] could use that rhetoric in the world. It is not permissible, it is very dangerous," the Belarussian president said.

In an interview for the Kazakh television channel 24KZ preceding his official visit to Astana, Lukashenko warned the U.S. against a military strike on the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying it would result in a "catastrophe" for the entire region.

Earlier, in a Sept. 11 op-ed for The New York Times, Putin said it was "very dangerous" to instill the idea of exceptionalism in peoples' minds and advocated against intervention in Syria.

The Moscow Times