Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reportedly joked that he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize during an interview with a Lebanese newspaper.
Chemical weapons experts sent to Syria to remove the chemical arsenal there were awarded the prize on Friday. But according to Assad, who spoke with pro-Damascus Al-Akhbar newspaper, the Nobel "should have been mine."
The daily reported that Assad made the comment "jokingly," while he spoke on the prize awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has been employed to put Syria's store of chemical weapons in the hands of the international community by summer 2014.
The newspaper did not specify when Assad said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
The OPCW, in conjunction with the United Nations, have sent a team of 60 chemical weapons experts and support staff to Syria since October 1, where the civil war has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of women, men and children since 2011.
The opposition forces, which are largely supported by the West, have claimed that Bashar al-Assad's Ba'ath government was responsible for multiple attacks on civilians in which chemical weapons were used. The state, however, insists that the rebel forces were responsible for using sarin gas, in an attack that resulted in the deaths of thousands of Syrian people.
Although some previous reports have maintained that the chemical arms experts' work has been going smoothly and that the Syrian state has, overall, complied with the international community, the director-general of the OPCW warned Monday that battles occurring near known chemical weapons sites have made it difficult for the inspectors to work.
"They change hands from one day to another, which is why we appeal to all sides in Syria to support this mission, to be cooperative and not render this mission more difficult," Ahmet Uzumcu told the BBC. "It's already challenging."
