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WASHINGTON • Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says destroying the stockpiles of chemical weapons would cost US$1 billion and would take roughly a year.

Assad said Syria was ready to provide a list of weapons, give experts access to the sites and talk to them about the technical aspects of what he said would be a complicated task.

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“So it depends, you have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule. It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more,” he said in an interview with Fox News Channel, conducted in the Syrian capital of Damascus and aired Wednesday,

“It’s not about will,” Assad added. “It’s about technique.”

A day after The Syrian president’s remarks were aired, a roadside bomb struck a bus in Syria’s central province on Thursday, killing 19 people.