DAMASCUS (AFP) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday inaugurated a plant to produce Iranian Saba cars, turning out 15,000 in the first year and rising later to an annual 35,000, the official SABA news agency said.

Assad tested a prototype vehicle at the factory near the western Syrian town of Homs and said the project would “strengthen still further the strategic links between Syria and Iran. Nothing can damage them,” he said.
Iran's car manufacturer Saipa has an 80 percent share in the project, which is costing 50 million dollars.
Later on Thursday, Assad opened a cement factory built for 250 million dollars by an Iranian company in the Syrian town of Hama, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Damascus.
The plant has a production capacity of 1.1 million tons a year.
Iranian investments in Syria have been growing and have now reached more than one billion dollars.