DAMASCUS: Syria has vowed to destroy its chemical weapons but said that the plan will cost around $1 billion and take about a year to complete.
“I think it’s a very complicated operation, technically. And it needs a lot of money, about a billion [dollars],” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview on Wednesday.
“So it depends, 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,” Assad added.
Moreover, the Syrian President insisted that his government forces were not responsible for the chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, adding that the attack was a violation of international law.
“This is despicable. It’s a crime,” Assad said.
“We have evidence that terrorist groups [have] used sarin gas,” Assad said. “The whole story [that the Syrian government used them] doesn’t even hold together…We didn’t use any chemical weapons.”
