U.S. President Barack Obama has said that America is not enemy of the Muslim world, local mass media reported Tuesday.

In his interview with the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya news channel which aired Tuesday, Obama said that his job for the Muslim world was to “communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.”

The U.S. had made mistakes in the past but “that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there’s no reason why we can’t restore that,” said Obama who was apparently referring to the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which prompted a massive backlash against the U.S. in the Muslim world.

Obama, who took the office on Jan. 20, has vowed to improve American images in the world arena. He telephoned Arab and Israeli leaders on his first full day in office on Wednesday and has sent his special envoy George Mitchell to the Middle East to help to end the six-decade Arab-Israeli conflict.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet