The de-facto ruler of Syria says the country will not engage in conflict with Israeli regime following long silence regarding regime’s intrusion into Syrian soil.

“We are not about to engage in a conflict with Israel,” Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said on Syrian TV on Saturday, citing the country’s “weakened state” as the reason.

The founder of the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda and the former-deputy commander of Daesh (ISIS) also said that Israel has no longer any reason to attack the country because “Hezbollah and Iran are no more.”

However, Sharaa, known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, failed to mention Israel’s numerous attacks on Syria’s military industries, destroying Syria’s navy, occupying vast swaths of lands on Golan Heights, and its plan to stay there “until winter.”

He said that HTS and its allies “have no hostilities with Iranian society,” but claimed the US- and Turkish-backed blitz that ousted the Assad government in Syria was “a victory over the dangerous Iranian political project in the region.”

Foreign-backed militants, led by HTS, took control of Damascus on December 8 and declared an end to President Assad’s rule in a surprise offensive that was launched from their stronghold in northwestern Syria, reaching the capital in less than two weeks.