Syria President Bashar Assad said in an interview on Monday that the country will honor the agreement to surrender its stockpile of chemical weapons but said that rebels might try to block international arms inspectors from doing their work, the Associated Press reported.
Battles continue across Syria among rebels and the AP reported that a top Al-Qaeda commander was killed in an ambush by rival, Western-backed group, sure to raise tensions among groups seeking to topple the Assad regime.
Assad told reporters that Damascus is dedicated to implementing the agreement reached between Russia and the United States to surrender its chemical weapons to international control, the AP said. Assad said that rebels might block inspectors from reaching some of the locations in order to frame the government.
Inspectors are expected in Syria by November and all components of the chemical weapons program are to be removed from the country or destroyed mid-2014. News of Syria's chemical weapons went public after an Aug. 21 attack near Damascus that a United Nations report found included the use of the nerve agent sarin. Hundreds of people died in the attack that brought the U.S. on the brink of military intervention.
Let's see how long the infighting continues if and when Syria destroys the stockpiles.
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