TEHRAN: Iran on Saturday condemned a deadly suicide bombing in Damascus, charging that such "terrorist actions" were the work of foreign governments that wanted to arm the Syrian opposition.
Iran "condemns terrorist act that resulted in killing and injuring Syrian people and also condemns foreign intervention," the deputy foreign minister in charge of Arab and African affairs, Hossein Amirabdolahian, said in a statement posted on his ministry's website.
"The parties who back sending weapons to Syria are responsible for killing innocent people. Some parties, by sending weapons and (committing) terrorist actions in this country, are pursuing their own specific goals," he said.
State media said at least 11 people died and 28 were wounded in Friday's suicide bombing which hit worshippers leaving a mosque after the main weekly prayers.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two civilians died.
Syria is the chief Middle East ally of Iran, which has pledged its support to beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad.
The persistent bloodshed has endangered a hard-won truce brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan even before the full deployment of a promised 300-strong UN military observer mission.
Amirabdolahian stressed in his statement that the solution to the Syrian unrest should be a "solely political one" that incorporates reforms promised by Assad.
"Some parties consider themselves above the UN and its special envoy's plan and are trying to impose their will with hasty actions," he said, in another swipe at countries that have argued in favour of arming the Syrian opposition.
Amirabdolahian did not name them but Iran's Gulf Arab rivals Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been among the most outspoken champions of arming the rebels,
although both governments insist they are not yet doing so.
US officials have voiced suspicion that Iran is supplying Assad's regime with weapons and military advisers, but Tehran has denied that.