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Vadim Ghirda/AP/Press Association Images

Assad: I should have won the Nobel Peace Prize

The Syrian leader made the remark “jokingly” according to a Lebanese newspaper.

SYRIA’S PRESIDENT BASHAR al-Assad has claimed that he should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper reported today

The prize, which was given to the global chemical weapons watchdog on Friday, “should have been mine”, Assad said, according to Al-Akhbar newspaper.

Assad made the remark “jokingly”, the daily said, as he commented on the award on Friday of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is working in Syria to destroy the Assad regime’s massive chemical arsenal by mid-2014.

Al-Akhbar also reported that Assad had proposed in 2003 that all countries in the region should hand over all weapons of mass destruction.

But the newspaper did not say when Assad made the comments about the Nobel.

The OPCW and the UN have had a team of 60 experts and support staff in Syria since October 1, while the civil war rages on.

The team started its work after a breakthrough UN Security Council resolution last month ordering Syria’s chemical stockpile destroyed.

The resolution came after a chemical attack in Damascus province on August 21 that killed hundreds of people.

More than 115,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.

- © AFP, 2013

Read: OPCW wins Nobel Peace Prize for work in eliminating chemical weapons

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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:20 PM

    Assad is just pointing out the obvious hypocrisy of the award,when people like Obama and Kissinger are past recipients.

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    Mute tmwtbc
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    Oct 14th 2013, 11:43 PM

    Spot on. The award for the disarmament team, while they are doing a worthy job, is nauseating in the extreme. John Kerry is also back-pedaling on a massive scale and would be well-advised to stop talking.

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    Mute wasif mir
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:19 PM

    If barrack Obama can win it,why can’t he ?

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    Mute Begrudgy
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:22 PM

    Why not. Worse have won it.

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    Mute Mjhint
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:01 PM

    Whatever about Obama Henry Kissinger is truly a war criminal.

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    Mute Cowenwatch
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:33 PM

    The road to Jerusalem is through Damascus – Henry Kissinger 1981

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    Mute jack arse
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:24 PM

    He gets my vote for worst movember ever

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    Mute Declan Mannix
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:50 PM

    I’d say he’d win alot at poker.

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    Mute Silverharp Harp
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:14 PM

    Ireland take note but he is an example of why the idiot sons of former politicians should be barred from public life.

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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:21 PM

    Assad might be a lot of things,but he is certainly no idiot.

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    Mute Hippocrateeth
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:05 PM

    And what qualifies you to say that, Shamen?

    By the way, you spelled shaman wrong, genius.

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    Mute al shamen
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:24 PM

    Whatever you say ‘Hippocrateeth’

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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:52 PM

    he looks like Captain Darling from Blackadder Goes Forth and other Blackadder series

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    Mute Robbie Doyle
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    Oct 14th 2013, 6:12 PM

    So he does! Brilliant, well spotted!

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    Mute Conor Conneally
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:15 PM

    If the Nobel committee gave out prizes for trolling, he’d be a top contender.

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    Mute Alvaro
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:41 PM

    You would say that! Boke!!

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    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:34 PM

    I totally agree, he’s got charm, wit, charisma and he looks like a Hollywood legend, maybe next year.

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    Mute Dermot Lane
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:58 PM

    Well, Obama won it, so why not.

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    Mute Brian Ward
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    Oct 14th 2013, 5:32 PM

    The EU got it (that means us) so that will tell you how much of a joke this prize has become.

    I mean who can forget this http://www.thejournal.ie/enda-kenny-nobel-prize-709162-Dec2012/
    “Enda Kenny to accept Nobel Peace Prize today”

    Next year the Economics prize should follow suit and give the prize to FF,FG,Lab plus the PD’s and the Greens if anyone can find what’s left of them. Medicine goes to the HSE, Physics (jointly) to Iran, N Korea and Israel even though though either don’t want it or won’t admit that they want it. The Mexican Cartels will have to share out the Chemistry Prize between them after the Award is dropped by parachute into Mexico, last man standing gets to make the acceptance speech. Finally the award for Literature goes to the Sunday (and Irish) Independent , the Oirish Sun, Mail and Mirror for some of the best coverage of half baked stories about Z list celebs, irrelevant “news” and digging up the dirt on anyone their Boss doesn’t like.

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    Mute Shane Walsh Pics
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:37 PM

    He is a good candidate for Movember!

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    Mute boiledsweets
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    Oct 14th 2013, 6:13 PM

    Bashar al assad, I have to say i like his style/humour – he tells it like it is.

    He has kept the country in peace albeit under a dictatorship and ruled with an iron fist,and kept all muslim factions mulling along peacefully # Until international community stepped in # Al quaeda # Do not trust the media spin on bashar # Wake up

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    Mute JQ
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:14 PM

    That is disgusting.

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    Mute dave
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:09 PM

    Where is the video where he said it?..if its not there,then don’t report it as fact.

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    Mute James Buchanan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 4:00 PM

    Hitler should have won it

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    Mute Seoirse M H
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    Oct 14th 2013, 6:52 PM

    In fairness he has done a fantastic job of organising the Syrian state forces against a proxy invasion of his country. The counties who planned the invasion of Syria tight it would be all over by now.

    It is great that Austria has handed over its chemical weapons. We just need Israel to hand over its WMD’s now as no state as war mongering as Israel should be allowed them.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 7:05 PM

    Seoirse, I just googled Austria and chemical weapons. Austria has offered to send experts to Syria to secure the chemical weapons in that country. I don’t see where Austria has given up “it’s chemical weapons” if it has any.
    So once again I have to ask “what are you shiteing about”?

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    Mute Seoirse M H
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    Oct 14th 2013, 7:32 PM

    Re Declan.

    That’s a typo. I meant Israel.

    My phone is malfunctioning, I’ll be dropping it in for a repair.

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    Mute Hippocrateeth
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    Oct 14th 2013, 8:00 PM

    No you won’t be.

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    Mute Declan Noonan
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    Oct 14th 2013, 8:21 PM

    Seoirse, that’s quite a typo!

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    Mute Seoirse M H
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    Oct 14th 2013, 11:08 PM

    Re Declan.

    Sure is. I would in no way want to associate Austria with Israel.

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    Mute Stewie Griffin
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    Oct 15th 2013, 12:49 AM

    not to male you paranoid B but is it really malfunctioning or are THEY watching you. Take note people if B goes silent we know a Seal team 6 was behind it in association with the reverse vampires and saucer people.

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    Mute Andrew Potts
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    Oct 14th 2013, 5:26 PM

    Why did Obama win it again ?

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    Mute John B. Reid
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    Oct 14th 2013, 11:07 PM

    I would have given the Nobel Peace Prize to Vladimir Putin, to be shared with Pope Francis. They are the men most responsible for preventing international war in Syria and ensuring that a diplomatic solution was followed, with chemical weapons destruction at the heart of the deal. If it wasn’t for Putin and Francis, Obama would have launched a careless and unwise war against Syria which would most likely have resulted in the Islamists coming to power in Damascus.

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    Mute michael murphy
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    Oct 14th 2013, 3:49 PM

    Well if giving him the award would make him see all that is good about peace and the recognition that comes with it, absolutely, give it to him.much cheaper way than trying ‘to bomb peace’ into him by Obama.its like saying to a kid..you do good, you get rewarded. Not too disimilar.missed oppurtunity there.it would just have been a way to say..’now, there’s a good boy.here’s your reward’.not to mention the lives potentially saved if he decides to be bad boy turned good.diplomacy is much more effective and much cheaper, and oh yes, the small matter of not having to drop bombs to resolve matters. It would have just been the proverbial pat on the back that could change his outlook on how to govern his people.

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    Mute _ego_infrascriptus_
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    Oct 14th 2013, 11:48 PM

    Putin doesnt need any prize.I am sure he is quite content to be where he is for as long as he wishes or lives,to be precise.Unlike Obama,who only has a few years left in the White House.But i am sure,however,if Putin decides to drive Russia into the ground like Gorbachev did with USSR,the prize will be his.

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