A Syrian lawmaker has said that awarding the Nobel peace prize to the chemical weapons watchdog underscores "the credibility" of the Damascus government and its intention to destroy its deadly arsenal.

An opposition figure, however, described the award as "a premature step" that would divert attention from what he said was the "real cause" of the country's bloodshed – the regime in Damascus.

Both spoke hours after the announcement in Oslo on Friday that Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, had been awarded the Nobel peace prize for working to eliminate the scourge that has haunted generations from the first world war to the battlefields of Syria.

The organisation had largely worked out of the limelight until this year, when the United Nations called on its expertise to help investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria,with a mandate to rid the country of its 1,000-tonne stockpile of chemical weapons by mid-2014. This is the tightest deadline ever given to the organisation and also the first conducted amid ongoing fighting.

Fayez Sayegh, a lawmaker and member of Bashar al-Assad's ruling Ba'ath party, told the Associated Press that by allowing the inspectors in, Syria was "giving an example to countries that have chemical and nuclear weapons".

He said the OPCW should work to rid the entire Middle East – including Israel, which is not a signatory to the convention – of weapons of mass destruction.

But Louay Safi, a senior figure in Syria's main opposition bloc, said giving the Nobel prize to the OPCW was premature.

"If this prize gives the impression that the chemical weapons inspections in Syria will help foster peace, then it's a wrong perception," Safi, who serves as a political strategist for the western-backed Syrian National Coalition, told AP.

"We welcome the removal of chemical weapons that were used by Assad against civilians," Safi added. "But demolishing the regime's chemical weapons alone will not bring peace to Syria because many more people are dying because Assad's troops are killing them with all types of conventional weapons."

Loay al-Mikdad, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army, echoed that stance and said the world had forgotten tens of thousands of Syrians killed by conventional weapons in the civil war.

"They forgot about our blood," he said. "Our problem is not just chemical weapons."

Syria's conflict has killed more than 100,000 people so far and laid waste to the countries' cities, shattered its economy and driven more than 2 million people to seek shelter abroad. At least 5 million people have been internally displaced.