Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaybani said that Israeli strikes on Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime “shocked his country, making normalization talks difficult.”

In an interview with CNN aired Sunday, al-Shaybani criticized Israel for “obstructing the Syrian government when it faced escalating sectarian violence in the south.”

The Syrian minister emphasized that “Syria is strong and united, will be beneficial for regional security, and this will benefit Israel.”

Israel had stated that the strikes on Syria were partly to prevent chemical weapons stockpiles and long-range missiles from reaching “extremists’ hands.”

However, al-Shaybani mentioned that the Syrian people “were shocked by the attacks, especially since Iranian militias or Hezbollah all left with the previous regime.”

Responding to a question about the possibility of normalizing relations between Syria and Israel after the military operation, the Syrian official said: “We do not pose a threat to anyone in the region, including Israel, but these new policies of cooperation and peace were met with these threats and strikes.”

Al-Shaybani added, referring to the series of agreements that established relations between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020, “Talking about normalization and the Abraham Accords is somewhat difficult.”