Syria will not be used as a launchpad for attacks on Israel, the country’s new leader has said, as he called for airstrikes to end.
Ahmed al-Shara, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, urged Israeli Prime Minister urged Benjamin Netanyahu to stop airstrikes after a bomb so powerful it reportedly measured on the Richter scale was dropped on Syria.
He also called on the West to lift sanctions imposed on Syria during President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Israel has been pounding what it says are military sites after the dramatic collapse of Assad's rule, wiping out air defences and most of the arsenal of the former Syrian army.
Israeli troops have also seized a border buffer zone, with critics accusing the country of violating the 1974 ceasefire and possibly exploiting the chaos in Syria for a land grab.
“Israel’s justification was the presence of Hezbollah and Iranian militias, so that justification is gone,” Ahmed al-Shara told the Times in his first interview since seizing power.
He added: “We are committed to the 1974 agreement and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors].
“We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks.
“The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions.”
Mr al-Shara leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which had split from al-Qaeda in Syria.
It is designated as a terrorist group by both the British and US Governments.
There have been concerns that HTS fighters will attack Syria’s minorities and single out the Alawite sect, which Assad belong to.
But the leader said he had met with the heads of minority groups to to reassure them, adding that there would be an amnesty for all Syrians except those who took part in the old regime’s torture.
He insisted his main aim is to stabilise the country and rebuild it but said there would be a “long process” before any elections might take place.
The Assad family's rule, which lasted more than half a century, collapsed just over a week ago following a rebel advance.
Israel reportedly dropped a bomb on Syria so powerful it measured on the Richter scale on Sunday.
Video shared online showed the huge explosion as Israel bombarded northwestern Syria near the city of Tartus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“Israeli warplanes launched strikes’ targeting a series of sites including air defence units and ‘surface-to-surface missile depots’,” the war monitor said.
It said the bombardment was “the heaviest strikes in Syria’s coastal region since the start of strikes in 2012”.
The explosion was said to be so large that it measured 3.0 on earthquake sensors. The Israeli military declined to comment on the strikes.
Sleeper cells of the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for deadly attacks over the past months in different parts of Syria.
