(Adnkronos) – The goal of the jihadist uprising and rebel factions is to ”overthrow the regime” of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. This was explained in an exclusive interview with CNN by Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, the enigmatic leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who in recent days has launched a new challenge to the Alawite president with the capture of Aleppo first and then Hama. In his first interview in years, speaking from an undisclosed location in Syria, al-Jawlani outlined plans to create a government based on institutions and a “council chosen by the people.” In other words, ”when we talk about goals, the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime. It is our right to use all available means to achieve this goal,” al-Jawlani said.
The leader of the jihadist group, born out of the former al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, added that ”the seeds of the regime’s defeat have always been within it. The Iranians tried to revive the regime, buying time, and later the Russians also tried to support it. But the truth remains: this regime is dead.”
As insurgents advance, al-Jawlani assured that civilians have little to fear from the management of rebel-held areas of Syria. If opposition forces succeed in overthrowing the Assad regime, there would be a transition to “a state of governance, institutions, and so on,” he predicted. He also said he has gone to great lengths to tell Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities that they will live safely under his rule. “There have been some violations against minorities by some individuals during times of chaos, but we have addressed these issues,” he explained. “No one has the right to cancel another group. These sects have coexisted in this region for hundreds of years and no one has the right to eliminate them,” al-Jawlani said.
The leader of the uprising then rejected HTS’s terrorist designation, calling it a label that is “primarily political and, at the same time, inaccurate.” Because he said he opposed some of the more brutal tactics used by other jihadist groups that led him to sever ties with them.
Al-Jawlani then expressed his desire to see foreign forces leave Syria. “I think once this regime falls, the matter will be resolved and there will be no need for any foreign forces to remain in Syria,” he argued. “Syria deserves an institutional system of government, not one where a single ruler makes arbitrary decisions,” he added. The Assad dynasty has been in power for 53 years in Syria since 1971. To maintain its decade-long rule, the Damascus regime has killed hundreds of thousands of people, imprisoned dissidents, and brutally displaced millions of people internally and abroad.
“We are talking about a larger project, we are talking about building Syria,” al-Jawlani continued. “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is only a part of this dialogue, and it could dissolve at any time. It is not an end in itself, but a means to carry out a task: to confront this regime,” he concluded.
