Syria will give its chemical weapons away, Bashar al-Assad tells Fox News

Country would give the deadly substances to whatever nation was willing to take them, leader of regime says

Syria would stand by an agreement to dispose of its chemical weaponsand give them to whatever nation was willing to take them, the country's president said on Wednesday night in a TV interview.

Bashar al-Assad said his government was bound to get rid of its weapons but maintained that it was not responsible for deadly gas attacks that killed hundreds outside Damascus on 21 August.

In an interview on the Fox News channel, the Syrian president said the destruction of the country's chemical weapons would take about a year, and would cost $1bn (£600m).

"I think it is a very complicated technically and it needs a lot of money. Some estimated about a billion for the Syrian stockpile," he said.

Asked whether he would be willing to hand over chemical weapons to the US government, Assad said: "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 also added that he had never spoken to Barack Obama. When asked whether he was interested in speaking to the US president, one of his harshest critics, he said: "That depends on the content. It is not a chat."

The interview was conducted in Damascus by former Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Fox News contributor, and Fox News channel senior correspondent Greg Palkot.

Meanwhile in Syria the violence continued as a rebel group affiliated with al-Qaida overran a Syrian town near the border with Turkey after fighting broke out with units of the Arab – and Western-backed Free Syrian Army, opposition activists said.

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant stormed the town of Azaz, 2 miles from the Syrian-Turkish border and killed at least five Free Syrian Army members, they said.

The fighting was the most severe since tensions mounted earlier this year between the rebel factions fighting to overthrow Assad.

It could pose a dilemma for the Turkish government, which has been allowing militant Islamist fighters to cross into Syria from its territory, but may not be keen to see a formidable al-Qaida presence so close to its border.

Azaz is 20 miles north of Aleppo, once Syria's commercial and industrial hub. A frequent target for air raids and missile strikes by Assad's forces, Azaz is also adjacent to al-Salamah, a border crossing with Turkey.

Activist Abu Louay al-Halabi said the fighting broke out after the Storm of the North Brigade, a Free Syrian Army unit, resisted attempts by the Islamic State fighters to abduct a German doctor working as a volunteer at a private hospital in Azaz.

"By taking Azaz, the Islamic State is a step closer to controlling the crossing. Its objective seems to be taking over the whole countryside north of Aleppo," he said.

Opposition sources said two Free Syrian Army units, Liwa al-Fath and Liwa al-Tawhid, based in Aleppo, had sent reinforcements to the Salamah crossing to defend it against a possible al-Qaida strike.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/19/syria-chemical-weapons-bashar-al-assad-tv-interview