Nobel prize 'should have been mine', jokes Bashar al-Assad

Beirut, Oct 15: Is the Syrian President Bashar-al Assad feeling 'disgruntled' or he cracked the worst-ever 'joke' of his life?

As the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Haque-based anti-chemical weapons group, Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on October 11, Syria's Assad 'jokingly' said that the "Nobel Peace Prize should have been awarded to him", a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper reported.

The prize, which was given to the OPCW, "should have been mine," he said during a meeting with visitors at the presidential palace.

On Monday, Syria became the 190th member-state of the OPCW.

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced OPCW as the winner of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons".

OPCW is tasked with destroying Assad's regime's massive chemical arsenal in Syria. The Prize will be presented in Oslo on December 10, on the death anniversary of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.

On Monday, Syria became the 190th member-state of the OPCW.

In August, at least 1200 people died followed by a chemical weapons attack in Damascus.

Since 2010, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog, more than 1, 15, 000 people have died in Syrian civil war between the Assad's regime and rebels.

OneIndia News