DHAKA: Syria’s president Bashar Al Assad has jokingly said that he should have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

A pro-Damascus Lebanese newspaper has reported, says gulfnews.com.

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

Al Assad made the remark ‘jokingly’, the daily said, as he commented on the award on Friday of 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 Al 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 Al Assad made the comments about the Nobel.

Meanwhile, Al Assad prayed at a Damascus mosque early on Tuesday morning as Muslims marked the Eid Al Adha holiday, state media said.

State television broadcast images of the president entering the Hassiba mosque and waving to supporters before taking part in prayers.

BDST: 1832 HRS, OCT 15, 2013
RoR/JCK