Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in an interview with Rossiya 24 channel, said on Thursday that he had agreed to hand over the country's chemical weapons “upon the request of Russia and not because of the American threats.”
“Any war against Syria would be destructive to the entire region and would plunge the region in a series of problems and instability for decades to come,” Xinhua cited State-run SANA news agency as quoting him.