diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index e9595f7b..c5f2106f 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+2014-11-15  Darshit Shah  <darnir@gmail.com>
+	* configure.ac: Add AC_HEADER_ASSERT. Enables --disable-assert option
+
 2014-11-05  Tim Ruehsen <tim.ruehsen@gmx.de>
 
 	* configure.ac: check for python3
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 547d4e01..21905ef5 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ Please send GNU Wget bug reports to <bug-wget@gnu.org>.
 
 * Changes in Wget X.Y.Z
 
+** Add --disable-assert configure option. Recommended for distro maintainers.
+
 ** Use pkg-config to check for libraries presence.
 
 
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 70284812..298aede3 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -57,6 +57,13 @@ AC_CANONICAL_HOST
 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED([OS_TYPE], "$host_os",
                    [Define to be the name of the operating system.])
 
+dnl
+dnl Add option to disable Assertions
+dnl
+dnl Adds a --disable-assert option to ./configure which can be used by distro
+dnl maintainers to compile without assertions.
+AC_HEADER_ASSERT
+
 dnl
 dnl Process features.
 dnl