Iran will defend the regime of its regional ally Syria due to its anti-Israeli stance, supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the visiting Turkish prime minister on Thursday.

"Iran will defend Syria because of its support for the anti-Zionist regime resistance," Khamenei said as he received Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, state television reported.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday voiced his country's unwavering support for Tehran's nuclear ambitions in a meeting with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to an official statement.

"The government and nation of Turkey has always clearly supported the nuclear positions of the Islamic republic of Iran, and will continue to firmly follow the same policy in the future," Erdogan was quoted as saying in the statement issued by Ahmadinejad's office.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi travelled to Turkey on an official and pastoral visit on Thursday, saying he would discuss there the situation of Maronites in Cyprus.

He kicked off the visit with a meeting with President Abdullah Gul in Ankara.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for a two-day visit focused on talks about Iran's nuclear policy and ties, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Erdogan, who was greeted at the airport by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, flew in from South Korea, where he had attended a nuclear security summit with other world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama.

Hundreds of Syrian opponents met in Istanbul Tuesday to cobble a common vision for an eventual post-Assad era ahead of a key global conference but the gathering was marked by dissent.

The Syrian National Council (SNC) main opposition group unveiled a proposal to lay the foundations of a new Syria to some 400 opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime's crackdown on dissenters has claimed almost 10,000 lives in a year, according to monitors.

Syrian forces clashed Monday with a group of "terrorists" seeking to enter the restive northwestern province of Idlib from Turkey, killing and wounding a number of them, official media reported.

"The authorities today foiled an attempt by a group of armed terrorists to enter Syria from Turkey, in an area between the towns of Darkush and Salqin," the official SANA news agency reported.

Syrian opposition factions will meet again in Istanbul on Tuesday to agree on common objectives for their nation's future ahead of a "Friends of Syria" conference, they said Monday.

Informal discussions have been taking place in a hotel on the outskirts of Turkey's largest city since Sunday, though talks start officially on Tuesday, said Ahmed Kamel, spokesman for the Syrian National Council.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat praised on Monday the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood’s statement on the developments in their country, saying that it reflected the Sunni population’s openness to regional changes.

He said: “The Muslim Brotherhood demonstrated moderation, diversity, and equality.”

Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug went on trial Monday on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, local media said.

Basbug, who was chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, has been in custody since January and risks life in prison if convicted in a case that has inflamed tensions between the government and the powerful military.

Turkey closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday because of deteriorating security conditions in Syria, a Turkish diplomatic source said.

"Activities at the Turkish embassy have been suspended from this morning," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that all diplomatic personnel have left the Syrian capital.