On Wedneday Al Jazeera's Arabic channel went into Syria for an exclusive interview with Jabhat al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. The al-Qaeda Syria affiliate has been fighting with — and often against — Daesh and government opposition groups across the country since late 2012.
The interview aired Wednesday, and in it al-Jolani addressed several points of Nusra's gameplan inside Syria — from what the group plans on doing after the conflict ends, to the presence (or lack) of the alleged Korosan group — a group of senior al-Qaeda officers US officials have said are operating inside Syria.
One notable highlight from the meeting is al-Jolani's comments on Syria's Alawites, the Shiite offshoot group of whom the Assad family identified with and has historically found support within.
According to al-Jolani, Nusra's battle "does not end in Qardaha, the Alawite village and the birthplace of the Assad clan," he said, adding that the al Qaeda group's war "is not a matter of revenge against the Alawites despite the fact that in Islam, they are considered to be heretics."
Abu Dhabi-based journalist Hassan Hassan live tweeted the Arabic interview into English, here are his important bits.
On al-Jolani's identidy (who was masked during the interview):
On the Khorassan Group:
On attacking the West:
And on the Lebanese Shiite militia group, Hezbollah, who is fighting alongside the Assad regime across southern Syria and in areas of the capital Damascus.
