“It’s the slow grinding work that we hope over time will be more appreciated,” he said.
The OPCW’s work was the “subject of years and years of patient diplomacy in which we’ve demonstrated that we do diplomacy very, very well. We’ve kept everybody aboard, we keep adding states parties, we’re approaching universality.”
To date, the OPCW has 189 members representing more than 98 percent of the world population, with Syria due to become a full-fledged member of the convention on Monday.
Israel and Myanmar signed in 1993 but have not yet ratified, according to the OPCW website.
Four states – North Korea, Angola, Egypt, South Sudan – have neither signed nor ratified the Convention.
The OPCW also provides assistance and protection to any member state subject to threats or attacks with chemical weapons.
Luhan, the OPCW spokesman, said any reaction to the peace prize would be posted on the organisation’s website, adding it did not want to create the impression that it was focussed on anything but its work.
“We’re in the process of trying to achieve something in Syria,” he said.
“If we achieve the objectives of this mission, then there’ll be something to celebrate.”
The head of the Stockholm peace research institute SIPRI meanwhile hailed the choice of laureate.
“I think it is a well-deserved and highly regarded organisation worthy of this prize,” SIPRI head Tilman Brueck.
“I think it will increase the pressure on the last states that have not joined the OPCW to do so, and there are some security hotspots concerning chemical weapons and it will focus attention on those,” he said.
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