DAMASCUS (Press TV) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says efforts by enemies to damage Damascus’ strategic and robust relations with Iran are to no avail.

“The strategic relations between Iran and Syria are based on shared principles and interests,” said al-Assad in an exclusive interview with IRIB in Damascus.
The Syrian president stressed that the West’s recent pressure on Iran and Syria has strengthened the two states and united them in their decisions against the West’s goals.
When asked what situation would distance Syria from Iran, he replied, “ when Iran stands beside Israel and the Untied States supports Syria.”
The Syrian chief executive lavished praise on Iran’s support for Arab states’ opposition to the Zionist regime, particularly that of Syria. Al-Assad underscored the common stance of Tehran and Damascus in their support for the Islamic resistance in Lebanon and Palestine.
“The achievements of the resistance over the past decade and its victory over the Israeli regime are the result of Tehran-Damascus strategic relations,” al-Assad noted.
Commenting on Damascus-Tel Aviv talks, the Syrian president said, “The term ‘negotiation’ is not an exact description. It’s rather an effort to set the stage for the initiation of negotiations. We are not sure about Israel’s intention in returning the Golan Heights to Syria; therefore, we remain distanced from the negotiations. We can’t confirm that Israel is withdrawing from the occupied Golan Heights yet.”
Turkey has mediated a series of indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel in a bid to get the parties to meet face-to-face and solve their dispute over the Golan Heights. Some Israeli officials, in contrast, describe the ongoing talks as a new strategy to part Tehran and Damascus.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move never recognized by the international community. Direct Syrian-Israeli talks under U.S. sponsorship collapsed in 2000.
Al-Assad also criticized U.S. interference and war-mongering policies in the Middle East over the past seven years. “U.S. plans for the region are in vain because they are alienated from the culture and realities of the Middle East.”
On Iran’s nuclear issue, the Syrian president asserted that the Islamic Republic was absolutely entitled to use nuclear technology for civilian uses.
“The West claims that it distrusts Iran’s guarantees,” he said, adding that the West should bear in mind that “confidence-building measures are a mutual undertaking.”
“This mistrust should not stop Iran’s scientific activities.”
The IAEA’s Monday report confirmed ‘the non-diversion’ of nuclear material in Iran and added that the agency had found no ‘components of a nuclear weapon’ or ‘related nuclear physics studies’ in the country.
The IAEA report confirmed that Iran has managed to enrich uranium-235 to a level ‘less than 5 percent.’ Such a rate is consistent with the construction of a nuclear power plant. Nuclear arms production, meanwhile, requires an enrichment level of above 90 percent.