Syrian rebel leader and head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Ahmad “Abu Mohammad al-Julani” al-Sharaa addressed Syria’s future, focusing on international relations, for the first time on Saturday in an interview with opposition TV channel Syria.tv.
Julani said, “Israel’s excuses for entering Syria no longer exist. After the Iranians’ departure, there are no more justifications for any foreign intervention in Syria.”
“The exhausted Syrian situation after years of war and conflicts does not allow for entering into any new conflicts.”
He said his priority was reconstruction and stability and not dragging Syria into conflicts that would lead to further destruction.
Julani called on the international community to intervene and take responsibility for preventing escalation and respecting Syrian sovereignty. He stressed that diplomatic solutions are the only way to ensure security and stability, away from any ill-considered military adventures.
He admonished the Iranian regime for turning the country into an attack platform, which brought significant danger to the Syrian people.
But he stressed that there would be no future enmity, “We were able to end the Iranian presence in Syria, but we do not hold enmity towards the Iranian people. Our problem was with the policies that harmed our country.”
Despite dodging any provocation question about Russia, Julani said that the revolution was an “opportunity to re-evaluate the [Russian] relationship with Syria in a way that serves common interests.”
Although he emphasized that the Russian air force had largely been responsible for targeting Syrian civilians during the civil war.
From revolutionary to statesman
Julani cautioned Syria that reform and change were coming, “The Syrian revolution has triumphed, but Syria should not be led with the mentality of a revolution. There is a need for law and institutions. There is a need to transfer the mentality from the revolution to the state. The next stage is the stage of construction and stability.”
“We are working to meet the basic needs of the Syrians.” He described how the Assad regime had plundered Syria into poverty, “There is an abundance of food, and Assad was systematically depriving the Syrians of it. There is a real tragedy, and we have plans to address these issues until we finish collecting the data.”
He accused the Assad dynasty of building a feudal tax farm designed to extract wealth from its subjects instead of supporting them. “There was a systematic destruction of the agricultural, industrial, and banking sectors. The regime did not build a state, but rather a farm, and the extent of the thefts was large. Documents will be presented to prove this.”
As part of Julani’s plans to “lead Syria with a statesmen’s mentality,” he wants to halt the production and trafficking of captagon, a drug that was massively produced under the Assad regime, as a way of getting around sanctions.
He confirmed that the new administration “will put an end to the production of captagon in Syria,” which had led to accusations of Syria becoming a narco-state.
He also reemphasized his previous commitment to protecting the minority groups of Syria; in particular, he mentioned the Christian and Druze communities who fought against Assad.
Julani differentiated between the Kurdish community and the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist organization, signaling the realignment of the mostly Kurdish SDF with the rest of the Syrian opposition.
Julani confirmed that the Syrian Defense Ministry would be dissolving all armed factions and that all weapons would be under the authority of the Syrian state.
