Syria Needs $1 Billion To Dispose Chemical Weapons: Assad

Syria will take about a year to assemble and destroy its arsenal of chemical weapons, said its President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, though he insisted that his government’s cooperation had not been borne out of America’s military threat.

During an interview with U.S. broadcaster Fox News, Assad said that his government intends to “fully cooperate” with the U.S.-Russian plan to decommission the regime’s chemical weapons, but denied any responsibility for the gas attack that killed more than 1,000 people in the city of Ghouta last month.

Syria will take about a year to assemble and destroy its arsenal of chemical weapons, said its President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday, though he insisted that his government’s cooperation had not been borne out of America’s military threat.

During an interview with U.S. broadcaster Fox News, Assad said that his government intends to “fully cooperate” with the U.S.-Russian plan to decommission the regime’s chemical weapons, but denied any responsibility for the gas attack that killed more than 1,000 people in the city of Ghouta last month.

[quote]”When we agreed to join this agreement, we want to fully cooperate with this agreement not partially,” said Assad, as cited by The Telegraph.[/quote]

“In one word, we didn’t use any chemical weapons in Ghouta,” he added, claiming that his forces were advancing in the area at the time and thus would have been foolish to fire rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin near its own troops, as the United States says it did.

“The whole story doesn’t even hold together. It’s not realistic,” he said, in English. “Because if you would have used it you would have hurt your own troops,” he added.

Assad told Fox News that his government would need about $1 billion to dispose their chemical weapons as the operation would be “very complicated.”

[quote]”I think it is a very complicated operation technically and it needs a lot, a lot of money…. It needs about $1 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 said.[/quote]

The wide-ranging interview with Assad had been conducted by Fox News’s senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot and former Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has met Assad on previous occasions. At one point in the interview, Assad even referred to the United States as “the greatest country in the world.”

Nevertheless, Assad also took the time to criticise U.S. President Barack Obama for his stance in the Syrian crisis. Unlike the Russians, Assad said, Obama had tried to get involved in Syria’s leadership and governance.

“Syria has never obeyed any threat,” the Syrian President said. “Listen to your people. Follow the common sense of your people. That’s enough,” he added, when asked if he had a message for the American President.

While Mr Assad’s words pledge to dispose his chemical weapons would undoubtedly be welcome by the west, many remain deeply suspicious that Syria will follow through on its promises.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday said that Syrian disarmament would happen “only with the United Nations passing a strong resolution.”

[quote]“It is important that the threat of force stay on the table in order to guarantee [Syrian] compliance,” he said, as cited by the Washington Post. “So we will continue to press this issue.”[/quote]

The Russians, of course, backed Assad’s statements. After talks in Syria, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said President Assad was “very serious” about the disarmament plan.

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Lawrence Pintak, dean of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University and a former CBS News correspondent in the Middle East, suggested to the Miami Herald that Assad’s interview with Fox News had been part of a charm offensive to manage public opinion in the west.

“He’s saying, ‘I’m Westernized, I’m quiet spoken, I’m not screaming jihad, and I’m the devil you can work with’… And that’s what American foreign policy has been about for decades – working with the devil you can to keep out the ones you don’t want,” Pintak noted.

[quote]“It’s public diplomacy at its best,” Pintak said. “It’s fascinating to watch someone who operates in a completely controlled media environment being so deft at managing his own image in the West.”[/quote]