Bashar al-Assad. Photograph by FreedomHouse
Discussions on how best to rid Syria of its chemical weapons arsenal continues in the UN Security Council, but in an interview with Fox News Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the operation would cost about a billion dollars and would take a year or more.
Assad called the destruction of his chemical weapons stockpiles, including tonnes of sarin, to be a “very complicated operation” that would likely cost around a billion dollars. The operation could also take more than a year, with Assad explaining:
“You have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule. It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more.”
The time-scale proposed by Assad is much longer than the week that US Secretary of State John Kerry originally proposed in his quip to a reporter, which is where the plan for chemical weapons decommissioning originated. A year or more would also give Assad more time with which he could use the weapons on the Syrian population again, with the US, UK, and France unequivocally blaming Assad for the Ghouta attack on 21st August which left 1,400 people dead.
Whilst the Western powers have treated the plan for destruction of chemical weapons as progress and a way to avoid military intervention in Syria, the plan also gives tacit approval of Assad’s other conduct throughout the war, including heavy bombardment of civilian populations in a number of places including Homs.
Assad continues to claim the opposition are made up of foreign fighters and al-Qaeda-linked jihadists, with no support from the Syrian people – denying that the ongoing conflict is a civil war. He also continues to deny the reports that his military were the perpetrators of the Ghouta chemical attack.
More than 100,000 people have died in the conflict to date, creating two million refugees outside Syria, and a further three million people displaced within the country.
