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."
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
