DAMASCUS -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that he agreed to put chemical weapons under international observation "upon the request of Russia and not because of the American threats," the state-run SANA news agency reported Thursday.

"Any war against Syria would be destructive to the entire region and would plunge the region in a series of problems and instability for decades to come," he said during an interview with Russia 24 channel, according to SANA, a couple of days after his administration accepted a Russian proposal that Syria place chemical weapons under international observation to avoid US military strikes over alleged chemical attacks in Damascus last month.

For the Russian initiative, Assad said that the implementation of such an initiative depends primarily on the will of the United States to abandon its aggressive policies against Syria.