Assad Pledges Quick Moves on Chemical Weapons Elimination

Syria will swiftly make available information about its chemical weapons and open sensitive facilities to international inspectors, while “getting rid of” those munitions within about a year, President Bashar al-Assad said in a televised interview.

Meeting the disclosure and inspection conditions under the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international accord banning such arms, is “no problem, we can do it tomorrow,” Assad said in an interview with Fox News that aired yesterday. While saying he is now committed to surrendering those weapons, he gave no ground in his assertions that rebels, not his forces, were responsible for the Aug. 21 sarin gas attack near Damascus that the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people.