West has nothing to fear from Syria, rebel leader whose group ousted Assad tells Sky News
Foreign countries have nothing to fear from Syria after Bashar al Assad’s regime was overthrown, the leader of the rebel group that ousted the previous government has told Sky News.
In his first remarks to a Western news organisation since Assad fled, the head of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), Abu Mohammed al Jolani, said “their fears are unnecessary, God willing”.
“The country will be rebuilt,” he said, speaking to Sky News’ international news editor Zein Jaafar and Middle East producer Celine al Khaldi, in Damascus.
“The fear was from the presence of the regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability.”
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He continued: “People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one and it’s not going to get into another one.
“The source of our fears was from the Iranian militias, Hezbollah and the regime which committed the massacres we are seeing today.
“So their removal is the solution for Syria. The current situation won’t allow for a return to panic.”
Jolani remains a designated terrorist by the US, but he has spent years trying to distance himself from his former ties to al Qaeda.
He says he has renounced his past as an extremist and now embraces pluralism and tolerance.
There has been discussions about whether Western countries will lift their terrorist label of Jolani and his HTS group following the events in Syria.
Sky News speaks to HTS leader in his first comments since capturing Syrian capital
By Zein Jaafar and Celine al Khaldi in Damascus, Syria
The leader of the Syrian armed rebel group which swept the Assad regime from four decades of rule has told Sky News Western nations have nothing to fear from his victory.
Abu Mohammad al Jolani, who now asks to be called by his birth name Ahmed al Sharaa, told Sky News his group doesn’t seek further conflict and will bring stability back to Syria.
In an impromptu visit to the mosque he used to attend as a youngster in the suburbs of Damascus he said people were “exhausted” from years of war.
He was escorted by several armed men and cheered on by dozens of young supporters posing for selfies.
Inside the Imam al Shafi’i mosque in the neighbourhood of Mezzeh he spoke briefly about how Syria had been driven to devastation by the corruption and greed of the Assad family.
He praised the efforts of his fighters who, he claims, took charge of Syria without any foreign support or interference.
In a clear reference to previous Russian and Iranian support of the Assad regime he noted that all former “colonisers” had failed to control the country.
The HTS leader is a former member of Islamic State of Iraq and led al Qaeda’s affiliate group in Syria before severing ties in 2016.
He is now trying to present himself as a more moderate Islamist leader but his group is designated by the UN, US, UK and other countries as a terrorist organisation.
His group’s rapid sweep across Syria has also aroused fears among other minorities in the country including Kurds, Alawites and Christians.
But Sharaa dismissed those concerns, saying: “The source of our fears was from the Iranian militias, Hezbollah and the regime which committed the massacres we are seeing today. So their removal is the solution for Syria.”