Syrian deputy minister seeks anti-militant cooperation with Japan

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad proposed in a recent interview that Japan deepen cooperation with his country to deal with the terrorist threats Daesh poses to the Japanese people.
"We call upon the Japanese government to cooperate with us in the battle against terrorism...Syria has a treasure of information on terrorists," Mekdad told Kyodo News, becoming the first high-level Syrian official to meet with Japanese media after a hostage crisis involving two Japanese earlier this year.
The deputy foreign minister also said the government of President Bashar al Assad did its "best" to investigate the whereabouts of the two Japanese citizens, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, but "did not get any information" about them.