Abu Mohammed al-Jolani address a crowd at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.

The leader of the Syrian rebel coalition which toppled the Assad dynasty has sought to reassure Western nations they have nothing to fear from his victory.

Mohammed al-Jolani, who now goes by Ahmed al Sharaa, said his Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) would not seek further conflict.

“Their fears are unnecessary,” he told Sky News at the Imam al Shafi’i Mosque in Damascus, adding: “Syria will be rebuilt. The fear was from the presence of the regime.

“The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It’s going towards stability. People are exhausted from war. So the country isn’t ready for another one and it’s not going to get into another one.”

Kaja Kallas, EU foreign policy chief, has warned of a potential extremist resurgence in Syria, while Anthony Blinken, US secretary of state, called for “credible, inclusive” governance in Syria so that the country does not become a hotbed for terrorism.

HTS is proscribed as a terror organisation by the UN, US, and UK.

No 10 suggested on Tuesday that Britain could still hold talks with the new Syrian regime despite its terrorist label.

Jolani, who still has a $10m US bounty on his head, joined al-Qaeda after moving to Iraq in 2003 and spent several years in US military prisons, before returning to Syria in 2011 to set up the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.

He cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, before consolidating factions into HTS in 2017, which he claims has become more moderate in recent years.

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