Nobel prize 'should have been mine', jokes Bashar al-Assad

The Prize went to the global chemical weapons watchdog, working in Syria to destroy the regime's chemical arsenal.


Afp October 14, 2013
File photo of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad joked that he should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper reported on Monday.

The prize, which was given to the global chemical weapons watchdog on Friday, "should have been mine", Assad said, according to Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Assad made the remark "jokingly", the daily said, as he commented on the award on Friday of Nobel Peace Prize to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working in Syria to destroy the Assad regime's massive chemical arsenal by mid-2014.

Al-Akhbar also reported that Assad had proposed in 2003 that all countries in the region should hand over all weapons of mass destruction.

But the newspaper did not say when Assad made the comments about the Nobel.

The OPCW and the UN have had a team of 60 experts and support staff in Syria since October 1, while the civil war rages on.

The team started its work after a breakthrough UN Security Council resolution last month ordering Syria's chemical stockpile destroyed.

The resolution came after a chemical attack in Damascus province on August 21 that killed hundreds of people.

It also followed US threats to strike Assad's regime.

Syria's war broke out after the army and security forces unleashed a brutal crackdown against anti-Assad protests that erupted in March 2011.

More than 115,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.

COMMENTS (3)

Sexton Blake | 11 years ago | Reply

@unbelievable: The actual war criminals live in two or three Western countries and one Middle Eastern country which gives the Westerners their instructions.

Uuuu | 11 years ago | Reply

He is absolutely right though. This nobel game has become a joke. American and Western states have become a laughing stock. Hope they realize this.

VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ