Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has said he supports the idea to destroy his
country's chemical weapons arsenal but warned it could take about a year
and would required $1 billion.
The
Syria disarmament plan was revealed by the US and Russia last weekend.
The West insists that the deal should be enshrined in a UN resolution
backed by the threat of military force, but Russia objects.
Speaking to Fox News,
Assad said the liquidation of Syria's chemical weapons would be "a very
complicated operation, technically. "And it needs a lot of money, some
estimates (say) about a billion." He added that this could take more
than a year.
When asked if he would agree to hand over chemical weapons to the US, President Assad said:
"It
needs about one billion. It is very detrimental to the environment. If
the American administration is ready to pay this money and take the
responsibility of bringing toxic materials to the United States, why
don't they do it?"
Assad again kept denying claims that his forces were responsible for a deadly gas attack near Damascus on 21 August.
Also yesterday, Russian diplomats stated yesterday
that UN's report on a poison gas attack in Syria, that Western nations
said proved President Bashar al-Assad's forces were responsible, was
biased and politicized. They said they would present evidence, provided to them by Assad, that rebels were behind the attack.
Meanwhile,
fierce fighting has been reported between two rebel groups in the north
of Syria. Activists said the fighting began when jihadists from the
al-Qaeda-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS),
and fighters from the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) clashed in
the town of Azaz, near the Turkish border. This is believed to be one of
the biggest confrontations so far between the jihadists and the FSA.
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