Abu Muhammad al-Julani, the leader of the Islamist group that toppled Bashar al-Assad in Syria, said Monday that rebel factions there would be disbanded and their fighters placed under the defense ministry, vowing to protect minority rights and calling for sanctions to be lifted so refugees can return.

He also reiterated his position that while Israel — which, in the weeks since the Assad regime fell, has destroyed most of the regime’s military assets, fearing their use by hostile groups — had a right to target Iranian-backed forces prior to the government’s fall earlier this month, it now has no legitimate basis to continue operating in Syria.

The long-ruling Assad, an ally of Iran, was toppled by a lightning 11-day rebel offensive spearheaded by the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS), whose fighters and allies swept down from northwest Syria and entered the capital on December 8.

Julani, who has recently returned to using his real name, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said Monday on the group’s Telegram channel that all the rebel factions “would “be disbanded and the fighters trained to join the ranks of the defense ministry,” adding, “all will be subject to the law.”

Speaking to foreign journalists, the Islamist leader said his nascent government intends to overhaul Syria’s constitution and institutions, but said it will take time, and that the country is not yet ready for elections due to remaining disorder, some 13 years after civil war broke out amid the 2011 Arab Spring.

“People have big ambitions, but today we must think realistically, because Syria has many problems, and they won’t be solved with a magic wand,” Julani said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “It needs patience.”

He also emphasized the need for unity in a country home to different ethnic minority groups and religions, while speaking to members of the country’s Druze community, which makes up about 3 percent of Syria’s prewar population.

“Syria must remain united,” he said. “There must be a social contract between the state and all religions to guarantee social justice.”

Several countries and organizations have welcomed Assad’s fall but said they were waiting to see how the new authorities would treat minorities in the country.

HTS is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda, and proscribed as a terrorist organization by many Western governments, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric. Since the toppling of Assad, it has insisted that the rights of all Syrians will be protected.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, Julani bristled at the designation of HTS as a terror group.

“The real terrorist is the one who killed people in Sednaya and dropped barrel bombs,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal, referring to an infamous government prison.

Additionally, during a second meeting with a delegation of British diplomats, the HTS leader spoke “of the importance of restoring relations” with London. He stressed the need to end “all sanctions imposed on Syria so that Syrian refugees can return to their country,” according to remarks reported on his group’s Telegram channel.

In his conversation with journalists on Monday, Julani also condemned the waves of Israeli airstrikes, following the fall of the Assad regime, which are estimated to have taken out a large majority of that government’s military assets, amid concerns that they could be used against Israel in the future.

The Israel Defense Forces have also seized a buffer zone between Israel and Syria that was previously manned in part by Syrian troops, who abandoned their posts amid the regime’s collapse. Israel has repeatedly said that control of the buffer zone is a temporary defense measure amid the chaotic takeover.

On Monday, Julani said that Israel had reason to involve itself in the fighting in Syria while the Assad regime — allied with Iran, which is committed to Israel’s destruction, as well as the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group, with which Israel entered a shaky ceasefire last month — was still standing, but that now “the excuse is gone.”

“There is no justification for the Israelis to bomb Syrian facilities or advance inside Syria,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.