The goal of Syria’s rebel coalition, as it wrests another major city from government control this week, is ultimately to overthrow authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad, according to Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the militant leader of the main group driving the country’s armed opposition.
In an exclusive interview with CNN, al-Jolani left no doubt that the ambitions of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham – a group that was formed out of a former al Qaeda affiliate – are nothing less than bringing an end to the Assad regime. In his first sit-down media interview in years, at an undisclosed location in Syria, he spoke about plans to create a government based on institutions and a “council chosen by the people.
As the rebel coalition’s military advances expand the territory and population under their control, al-Jolani insisted that civilians had little to fear in the management of rebel-held areas of Syria. “People who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly,” he claimed. If opposition forces succeed in toppling Assad’s regime, it will transition into “a state of governance, institutions and so on,” he envisioned.
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