Edi Rama

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday said he would not accept a US request to host the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

In an address to the nation that followed protests across the country, Rama said that because technical consideration for the process had not been completed, Albania could not host the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons.

“Albania has it impossible to be involved in this operation,” Rama said, after a long speech in which he praised both Albania’s partnership with the United States and the protests against the US deal.

Immediately after the announcement, thousands of protesters gathered outside the government’s headquarters erupted in jubilation.

Based on a UN Security Council resolution from September, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s chemical stockpiles have to be removed from Syria by January 2014, and destroyed before June.

The United States had asked the Albania to host the destruction process on its soil, which would have been carried out with international financial and technical support.

However, the request provoked protests across the country by students and activists, who feared that Albania was being turned in a “dustbin”. balkaninsight