Syria's president says he'll welcome the return of U.N. investigators to follow up on more allegations of chemical weapons use in his country.
"We've been asking them to come back to Syria to continue their investigations," President Bashar al-Assad told Fox News in an interview broadcast Wednesday.
Al-Assad said he hadn't had time yet to analyze the U.N. investigators' findings so far, but stressed they have more work to do.
"They haven't finished it yet," he said, adding that it's clear that rebels were behind chemical weapons attacks, not his government.
Ake Sellstrom, the head of the inspection team that visited after an August 21 attack outside Damascus, told CNN that the next visit could take place as early as next week.
In the meantime, Al-Assad vowed that his government would comply with the deal to hand over and destroy its chemical weapons, but noted that the timeframe is uncertain and the costs will be great - up to $1 billion by some estimates.
And he said that his government's decision to sign on had nothing to do with a threat of military action by the United States.
"Syria never obeyed any threat. We actually responded to the Russian initiative," he told Fox. "We obey because we want to obey. We have completely different incentives."
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