Syrian president Bashar al-Assad acknowledged his regime's possession of chemical weapons during an interview on Fox News Wednesday, although he denied ever lying about having them in the past, and said he agreed to the destruction of them over the next year:
DENNIS KUCINICH: I want to talk to you about other major developments regarding the chemical weapons plan which has been agreed to by the U.S. and the Russian government. Do you agree with this plan to secure and to eventually destroy the chemical weapons?
ASSAD: Last week, we joined the international agreement of preventing the WMD, chemical WMD. The main part is not to manufacture these armaments and not to store and not to use, and of course, not to distribute. And part of it is to get rid of those materials, the chemicals. Of course, when we are part now of this agreement, we have to agree on that chapter.
KUCINICH: You have to agree on?
ASSAD: On getting rid of these arms, to destroy.
Then, Assad declared "it's not a secret anymore" that Syria has chemical weapons and flatly denied ever lying about having them in the past, instead saying, "We never said no, we never said yes":
KUCINICH: We know that President Obama and Secretary Kerry have said in the past that you were lying -- that's their words, not mine-- when you said that you didn't have any chemical weapons. A few days ago with Russia channel 24, you admitted you had chemical weapons stockpiles. Now, I just want to make sure we're clear before we go forward. Do you or do you not have chemical weapons?
ASSAD: First of all, regarding what Obama and Kerry said, I dare them to say that we said no once. We never said it.
KUCINICH: You never said --
ASSAD: No, no, no.
KUCINICH: Why now?
ASSAD: We never said no. We never said yes.
KUCINICH: Can you say --
ASSAD: Yes. We always say it's a classified issue. We don't have to discuss it, and if we want to talk about it, we say if. And if means you may have it, you may not. So this is a blatant lie.
KUCINICH: Okay, but can you tell us now, do you have chemical weapons or don't you?
ASSAD: Look, when we joined -- when we joined the treaty last week, it means that we have said that. So it's not a secret anymore.
Assad said later in the first portion of the interview with Kucinich that he had no conditions about the destruction of the weapons but added it would cost about $1 billion to get rid of them all. He also cited the environmental effects that their demolition would enact, but he said he didn't care who did it or where it happened if they were willing to take on those costs, even if it was the United States:
KUCINICH: Can you destroy these chemical weapons quickly, and if not, why not?
ASSAD: I think it's a very complicated operation, technically, and it needs a lot of money, estimated about a billion. we are not experts in that regard, but that's the estimate we've had recently. So it depends, you have to ask the experts what do they mean by quickly. it has a certain schedule. It needs a year, maybe less, maybe a little bit more. What do you mean by quickly?
KUCINICH: Since it is the United States, which demanded that you give up chemical weapons, would you be prepared to turn over your chemical weapons to the U.S. government for the purposes of safely destroying those weapons?
ASSAD: As I said, it needs a lot of money. It needs about $1 billion. It's very detrimental to the environment. If the American administration is ready to pay that money and to take the responsibility of bringing toxic material to the United States, why don't they do it? But, of course, it's going to be in cooperation with the specified organization.
KUCINICH: But you're prepared to hand them over at some point for the safe destruction of them?
ASSAD: Doesn't matter where. As I said, if you are going it destroy them, it doesn't matter where they go.
KUCINICH: Are there any conditions?
ASSAD: No, we don't have any conditions to send it anywhere. If they're going to be destroyed, they could be destroyed anywhere. As I said, it's very detrimental to the environment. Whatever country is ready to take the risk of those materials, let them take them.