Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied in remarks published on Sunday that a site raided by Israel last year was a nuclear reactor under construction as charged by the United States.
Last September's Israeli air strike "hit a military site under construction, not a nuclear site as Israel and America claimed," Assad told the Qatari daily Al-Watan in an interview.

"Does it make sense that we would build a nuclear facility in the desert and not protect it with anti-aircraft defences?" he asked.

"A nuclear site exposed to (spy) satellites, in the heart of Syria and in an open space?

"We don't want a nuclear bomb even if Iran acquires one," added Assad, whose country is a close ally of Tehran, itself embroiled in a standoff with Washington over its nuclear activities.

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"Where would we use it?... War in the region will effectively remain conventional," he said.

Assad underlined that he believed Iran "does not think differently" on this score.

Iran has repeatedly rejected Western suspicions that its nuclear programme is cover for a drive to develop an atomic bomb.

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