Syria's President Bashar Assad accused Turkey in an interview published Wednesday of giving logistical backing to Syrian "terrorists" and told Ankara to stop meddling in his country's affairs.

"Turkey's desire to interfere in Syria's internal affairs has put it in a position which unfortunately makes it a party to all the bloody activities" in Syria, he told the daily Cumhuriyet in an interview published Wednesday, the first part of which it published a day ago.

A Turkish fighter jet shot down by Syria last month asked for trouble when it entered Syrian airspace, the Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian source as saying on Wednesday.

"The actions of the Turkish plane were no doubt a provocation. Otherwise how would you explain the fact that the fighter jet flew two, albeit short, sorties in the Syrian airspace?"

Iranian shipments of natural gas to Turkey have been resumed after being cut by an explosion targeting a pipeline in eastern Turkey, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday.

Natural gas flow to Turkey resumed after maintenance on the damaged pipeline, Yildiz told Anatolia news agency.

Technical experts from Iran and major world powers gathered Tuesday in Istanbul for closed door talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program, a European diplomat said.

The meeting between nuclear physics experts from Iran and the major powers known as P5+1 -- the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany -- takes place without the participation of diplomats, the source said.

The Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC) has pulled out of an opposition conference in Cairo, citing political "disputes," a statement said on Tuesday.

The two-day conference opened on Monday in the Egyptian capital, under the auspices of the Arab League, to forge a common vision for a transition in the country after a blueprint was adopted by world powers on the weekend.

Syrian President Bashar Assad regretted that his country's defense forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet on June 22, he said in an interview with the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet published Tuesday.

"The plane was flying in an air corridor used three times in the past by the Israeli airforce," he said, but added that he regretted the incident -- which has further fuelled tensions between the two former allies -- "100 percent.”

Dozens of Syrian soldiers including top officers, defected to neighboring Turkey on Monday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The 85 soldiers who fled include one general and other senior officials, the agency said, citing local officials.

World powers and Iran will hold follow-up talks in Istanbul on Tuesday over Tehran's nuclear program, the Turkish government said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal said the meeting is "essentially technical" in nature. It was scheduled during strained talks in Moscow earlier this month.

Turkish warplanes have struck three locations in northern Iraq, believed to be Kurdish rebel hideouts, the army said in a statement Monday.

The army command said it hit "three shelters belonging to the separatist terrorist organization," referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels, after exploratory flights located the hideouts on June 26-30.

An Istanbul court on Monday began hearing a high-profile trial on the alleged links between some 200 suspects and outlawed Kurdish rebels, Anatolia news agency reported.

A total of 205 people, 140 of them arrested, stood accused of links with the Union of Kurdistan Communities, known as KCK, which authorities say is the urban wing of the outlawed rebels, The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).