Albanians Protest at Syria Chemical Weapon Destruction Plans

Protesters gathered outside the Albanian parliament in the capital Tirana on Thursday to demonstrate against any potential plans for the country to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal on its soil.

Chanting "No to chemical arms", the activists pleaded with the Albanian government to resist any requests from foreign governments to help eliminate Syrian weapons in Albania.

"The authorities must not allow the Syrian chemical arsenal to be destroyed on Albanian soil. Albania must firmly oppose such a demand," Saiga Guri of the non-governmental Alliance Against Waste Import, told protesters.

Guri added: "Albania has no capacities and should not be a dustbin, thus endangering lives of its citizens."

France, Belgium and Albania have been mentioned as possible sites for the dismantling of Syria's entire chemical arsenal, estimated at about 1,000 tons.

On Thursday, a Belgian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP that the U.S. had contacted several of its allies, including Albania, for possible help in destroying Syria's chemical arsenal.

"The Americans held an exploratory working brief in early October with Belgium, Norway, France and Albania to see what capacities each might have to treat chemical weapons," the spokesman said, adding that no formal request had yet been made.

Under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2118 passed in September, Syria's weaponry has to be destroyed by June 30, 2014.

Albania's government has so far refused to make any comment on a possible offer.

However, Besnik Baraj, a deputy of the ruling Socialist party and active environmental campaigner, said he was opposed to such a possibility.

"Albania has no means to stock and dismantle such a big quantity" of arms, Baraj told TV station News 24.

Six years ago, it was confirmed that Albania had destroyed its own stockpile of chemical weapons, a leftover from the communist period.

Norway has ruled out destroying the chemical weapons on its soil.