Publish Date: 9 April 2013 - 11:09

The Iranian foreign ministry in a statement strongly condemned the Monday's terrorist blast in Damascus, and blamed the countries which provide arms and financial support for the terrorist groups in Syria for the massacre of the Syrian people.

"The incident of the terrorist blast in the Syrian capital was aimed at taking revenge from the Syrian nation and fomenting instability in the region," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said on Monday.

"Certainly those sides which have placed arming and stimulating armed groups on their agenda are the first to blame for such actions and then the defeated terrorist groups which try to make up for their failures against the resistant Syrian people by inhuman crimes," he added.

Meantime, Mehman-Parast said that the Syrian people who are aware of the ominous goals of their enemies will use their rights to defend their country's national sovereignty.

A car bomb exploded in central Damascus on Monday causing deaths and injuries, Syrian state television reported.

"Terrorists detonate the car bomb between Sabaa Bahrat square and Shahbander Street," Syria's state television reported, adding subsequently that preliminary information suggested that the explosion was a suicide attack.

The explosion occurred near the Syrian central bank, and security forces and the army quickly moved into the area to prevent people from approaching the scene of the attack.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against the Syrian police, border guards, statesmen, army and the civilians being reported across the country.

Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.