Assad regrets downing Turkish jet

In an interview with the Cumhuriyet daily,Assad offered no apology,insisting that the plane was shot down over Syria and that his forces acted in self-defence.

He said that the plane was flying in a corridor inside Syrian airspace that had been used by Israeli planes in 2007,when they bombed a building under construction in northern Syria. The UN nuclear agency has said that the building was a nearly finished reactor meant to produce plutonium,which can be used to arm nuclear warheads.

The plane was using the same corridor used by Israeli planes three times in the past, Assad told Cumhuriyet. Soldiers shot it down because we did not see it on our radars and we were not informed about it. Assad said: I say 100 per cent,I wish we did not shoot it down.

Commenting on a UN-brokered plan for a transition in Syria that was adopted in Geneva,Assad said he was pleased the decision about Syrias future was left to its people.