Our problem is not with Israel: Damascus governor

Says Syria wants peace & cannot be an opponent to anyone

- Agencies

The governor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, in an interview with the US public broadcaster NPR, apparently on behalf of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the newly-installed government wants to have cordial relations with Israel.

"We have no fear toward Israel, and our problem is not with Israel," Maher Marwan told NPR. "There exists a people who want coexistence. They want peace. They don't want disputes," The Times of Israel quoted him as saying.

"And we don't want to meddle in anything that will threaten Israel's security or any other country's security," he said. "We want peace, and we cannot be an opponent to Israel or an opponent to anyone."

He added that Israel's initial trepidation after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad was "natural." "Israel may have felt fear," he said. "So it advanced a little, bombed a little, etc."