Nobel Prize a 'great honor', OPCW head

Turkish career diplomat Uzumcu says the award will spur his group to "stronger commitment and greater dedication."

Nobel Prize a 'great honor', OPCW head

It is a "great honor" to be awarded the prestigious peace prize, the head of the Nobel-laureate Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Friday.  Turkish diplomat Ahmet Uzumcu told journalists in solemn celebration that the award would spur the organization to "stronger commitment and greater dedication." "I hope this award will achieve peace in Syria," he said as an inspector team is currently in the Middle East country to oversee the destruction of its poisonous stockpiles in an ambitious time frame. The UN Security Council resolution on Syria’s chemical arms aims to have the entire arsenal completely destroyed or removed by mid-2014. Uzumcu said the organization had the capacity to conclude the task in time. He also noted the Chemical Weapons Convention, policed by the OPCW, has become a "nearly universal" agreement, missing only six states in its global membership.  He expressed hope that the prize would be "additional encouragement" for those states to become party to the convention.

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