Cumhuriyet newspaper quoted Assad as saying: “We learned that it (the plane) belonged to Turkey after shooting it down. I say 100 percent ‘if only we had not shot it down’.

“The plane was flying in an air corridor used three times in the past by the Israeli airforce,” he told Cumhuriyet in an interview published on Tuesday.

“Of course I might have been happy if this had been an Israeli plane,” Assad said.

He added that “We will not allow (the tensions) to turn into open combat between the two countries.

He also said Syria had not amassed and would not amass military forces along the Turkish border, whatever action Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s government takes.

Turkey hasdeployed military hardware along its southern border since Syria shot down the Turkish jet on June 22, escalating tensions between the two countries.

Syria says it shot down the Turkish jet in self-defense and that it was brought down in Syrian air space.

But Turkey says that although the jet had violated Syria’s airspace, it was in international airspace when it was shot down.

Erdogan said Syria shot down the unarmed plane in international airspace in a “hostile” act and without warning.

Assad sent his condolences to the families of the two pilots of the downed plane, who have not been found.

“If this plane had been shot down in international airspace (as maintained by Ankara) we would not have hesitated to apologise,” he said.

“In my view, both Government forces and armed opponents have been involved in actions harming civilians,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told reporters after a closed-door briefing to the Council.

“Those responsible for attacks against civilians must be held accountable, and so I reiterated my call on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court as I believe that the evidence points to the commission of crimes against humanity,” she stated.

The UN estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 16 months ago.

“Ending the conflict is what we all seek,” said Ms. Pillay, whose office (OHCHR) and the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria – appointed by the UN Human Rights Council – have documented serious human rights violations by both Government and opposition forces.

The High Commissioner’s briefing comes a day after the Action Group on Syria, which met in Geneva under the auspices of the Joint Special Envoy for the UN and the League of Arab States on Syria, Kofi Annan, agreed on a set of principles and guidelines for a Syrian-led transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people.

This includes the establishment of a transitional governing body that would exercise full executive powers and that would be made up by members of the present Government and the opposition and other groups.

The Group also called for all parties to immediately re-commit to a sustained cessation of armed violence, to fully cooperate with the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), and to implement the six-point plan put forward by Mr. Annan without waiting for the actions of others.

Ms. Pillay stressed that any solution to the conflict must adequately address the root causes of the conflict, namely the human rights grievances.

“I welcome the Action Group’s plan and hope that it will rapidly pave the way for a genuinely democratic and inclusive State with full respect for human rights and the rule of law.”

She also stated that the presence of UNSMIS in the country remains “vital,” and that she urged the Security Council to support and strengthen its mandate to enable it to effectively monitor and report on the human rights situation in Syria.

Annan said on Friday that he was “optimistic” that the Geneva talks would lead to a satisfactory outcome.

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, met Hillary Clinton, in St Petersburg on Friday. He said there was “a very good chance of finding common ground at the conference in Geneva”.

Lavrov, said that he had seen some flexibility on Clinton’s part during their talks.

“I felt a change in Hillary Clinton’s position. There were not ultimatums,” he said. “Not a word was said that the document we will discuss in Geneva cannot be touched,” he said.

A senior US state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that “areas of difficulty and difference” remain, but that an accord was still possible.

Kofi Annan, joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, has laid on the table a proposal involving the formation of a national unity government comprising leaders from both the government and the opposition.

Annan’s new proposal will call for multi-party elections, and an offer for “significant” international funding to rebuild war-torn Syria, according to a blueprint obtained by the AFP news agency.

According to Annan the transitional government “could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups, but would exclude from government those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardise stability and reconciliation”, leaving unclear whether Bashar al-Assad will be excluded form the transition government.

Foreign ministers from Turkey, Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq are also set to attend the meeting. Iran, Assad’s other close ally, was excluded – a condition set down by the US – as was Saudi Arabia, which has supported the Syrian opposition.

Meanwhile, Iran’s U.N. ambassador said on Friday that Iran could be a “heavyweight champion” of efforts to bring peace to Syria, according to Al Arabiya.

Assad on Thursday dismissed the notion of any external solution to the crisis, “We will not accept any non-Syrian, non-national model, whether it comes from big countries or friendly countries.

“No one knows how to solve Syria’s problems as well as we do.”

The two-day Istanbul meeting includes almost all opposition factions, while representatives from several Arab and Western countries were present as observers, along with a representative of international Syria envoy Kofi Annan, according to Al Jazeera.

The SNC has been widely criticized for not representing the full diversity of minority groups in Syria.

Last Sunday, the SNC appointed Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda as its new leader after said Burhan Ghalioun, who stepped down last month as head of the main opposition group the Syrian National Council, amid mounting criticism having his presidency constantly renewed. Ghalioun had also been accused of ignoring the Local Coordination Committees, which spearhead anti-government protests on the ground in Syria, and of giving the Muslim Brotherhood too big a role.

Kurdish leader Sayda has pledged to embrace all groups to win a broader appeal.

“Our first aim is to create reform inside the [council] and reconstruct our structure [while] continuing our relations with the other groups in the opposition,” the council’s new leader, Kurdish activist Abdel Basset Sayda, told the Hurriyet Daily News in an interview on June 15, adding that all groups that wished to join the council would be welcomed.

Friday’s only major absentee was the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, a large group of Arabs, Kurds and socialists, who said “technical problems” prevented them from attending, other participants said, according to Hurriyet news. 

The meeting comes ahead of a planned major conference organized by opposition groups in Cairo under the auspices of the Arab League, although no date for that meeting has yet been announced.

In Turkey where the group is meeting, the number of registered Syrian refugees has topped 30,000, a Turkish foreign ministry official said on Friday, according to Al Arabiya.

UN officials have said Syria has now entered in a full-scale civil war, with activists saying more than 14,400 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in Mid-March 2011.