Syria: Iran has right to nuclear technology

Damascus - Speaking after a meeting with Iran's nuclear negotiator in Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday reiterated his support for Iran's right to nuclear technology and to enrich uranium. Al-Assad and Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's national security council, also discussed regional and international issues, including ongoing tensions in the Palestinian territories, a statement from the Syrian presidency said.

It is "Iran's right, as it is the right of other state signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to enrich (uranium) for peaceful purposes," al-Assad said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moalem said his country would back Iran if it sought to enrich some of its uranium holdings to 20 per cent, as Iran has threatened to do if talks with the West failed to produce a deal that would supply Iran with the nuclear fuel it seeks.

Soon after Jalili arrived in Damascus, an explosion killed at least four people on a bus full of Iranian pilgrims visiting a Shiite holy site on the outskirts of the capital, witnesses and doctors said.

In remark's carried by Syria's official news agency, Syrian Interior Minister Said Mohammed Sammur said the explosion had been caused by a fault with an air pump used to inflate tires, and not by a bomb.