Chemical weapons

Assad vows to destroy chemical weapons within one year

RT

18 September, 2013

Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is committed to the chemical weapons agreement and vowed to hand over the country’s chemical arms to be destroyed. He added that the plan will cost $1 billion and take one year to complete.

Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday, Assad said that Syria is ready to hand over chemical weapons to any country willing to risk taking them.

"I think it's a very complicated operation, technically. And it needs a lot of money, about a billion," he said.

He insisted that government forces were not responsible for the chemical weapons attack outside Damascus on August 21.

The Syrian leader stressed that his decision to destroy the stockpiles of chemical weapons was not forced upon him by the threat of US strikes.

"Yeah, there's a misunderstanding that we agreed with this agreement because of the Americans," he told the US network.

"Actually, if you go back before the G20, before the proposal, the Russians, it wasn't about handing over the chemical arsenal," he said, referring to a Russian offer to oversee his disarmament.

"So it's not about the threat. Syria never obey any threat. We actually responded to the Russian initiative and to our needs and to our conviction," he insisted.

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