Report accuses Iran of exporting arms to the Syrian government

A confidential draft U.N. report accuses Iran of exporting arms to the Syrian government in violation of a ban on weapons sales, a Western diplomat said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The draft report describes three seizures of Iranian weapons shipments, including two bound for Syria, within the past year, said the diplomat, who was not authorized to release details to the media.

The report was drafted by a panel of experts and submitted to the U.N. Security Council's committee that monitors sanctions against Iran, the official told CNN.

The accusation came as al-Assad, in a rare interview, told Russia 24 that weapons bound for rebels were entering his country from neighboring Lebanon and Turkey.

"You can't simply close the borders and stop the smuggling, but you can reduce the flow," he said.

Al-Assad put the blame instead on the so-called Arab Spring, during which popular revolutions have toppled the governments of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

"If we take into consideration the developments in Syria, the events in Libya and other countries, for the leaders of these countries, it's becoming clear that this is not 'spring' but chaos," al-Assad said.

The Arab Spring movements inspired the uprising in Syria, which began in March 2011 with protests calling for political reforms. It devolved into a revolt with an armed opposition amid a crackdown by al-Assad's forces.

The United Nations estimates that at least 9,000 people have died in the 14 months of conflict, while opposition groups put the death toll at more than 11,000.

While rebel forces, called the Free Syrian Army, say their ranks are filled by defectors from Syria security forces, al-Assad described them as criminals.

"It's not an army, first of all, and it's not free because they get their arms from different foreign countries," he said in the interview.

"That's why they are not free at all -- they are a bunch of criminals who have been violating the law for years and have been sentenced in various criminal cases. There are religious extremist elements among them, like those from al Qaeda."

Al-Assad dismissed the international pressure brought to bear for him to end the violence and step down, vowing that Syria would not bow on any issue.

Al-Assad acknowledged the sanctions have hurt Syria's economy.

"The world doesn't consist just of Europe and the United States, and we find alternatives which allow us to overcome these difficulties," he said. "We can support small and mid-sized business, the basic element of our economy is agriculture, and it's hard to affect it with sanctions."

Meanwhile, the U.S. government distanced itself from a Washington Post report that said more and better weapons are making their way into the hand of Syrian rebels.