The premier denied that the demonstration of the civic organization was the real reason for the negative answer he ultimately gave on having the process done in Albania
TIRANA, March 12 – Prime Minister Edi Rama said this week Albania did not accept an international request to dismantle chemical weapons coming from Syria last November because the country did not meet the proper conditions to do so.
Rama said both Tirana and Washington, which had asked Albania to help in the process, concluded at the end that Albania was not the proper setting to complete the process.
The premier denied that the demonstration of the civic organization was the real reason for the negative answer he ultimately gave on having the process done in Albania.
Rama said that after intensive talks both governments decided against the move.
The prime minister made the comments and an event organized to promote a recent book on the matter by an Italian- Albanian journalist, Carlo Bollino.
In November, thousands of Albanians demonstrated outside Parliament and the prime minister’s office in Tirana, the capital against a reported plan for Syrian chemical weapons to be destroyed in Albania.
Western nations and Damascus favored destroying the weapons in another country. Albania was apparently among possible venues because it has already destroyed its own stockpile.
The protesters questioned whether that can safely be done in Albania and whether it would undermine efforts to boost tourism in the country.
