Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani told CNN Israeli strikes on Syria after the fall of the Assad regime “stunned” his country making discussions about normalization “difficult.”

In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria at the Council on Foreign Relations, aired Sunday, al-Shibani criticized Israel for having “obstructed” the Syrian government when it faced a surge in sectarian violence in the south.

The Syrian minister vowed that a “strong and unified Syria would be good for regional security, and that will benefit Israel.”

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship – a major ally of Israel’s arch-foe Iran – last December prompted a military response from Israel, which launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.