Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar defended Israel’s cautious approach to the new Syrian government and its leader, former Al-Qaida member Ahmed al-Sharaa, in a Knesset speech on Monday, citing the regime’s mass killings of members of the country’s Alawite minority over the weekend.

Sa’ar noted that on a recent trip to Brussels, he warned his European counterparts that the new Syrian government, led by Al-Sharaa, who previously was known as Mohammed Al-Jolani, “is not a democratically elected regime but rather a Jihadist group that ruled the Idlib enclave and seized additional territories in Syria by force, including the capital, Damascus.”

“I warned my colleagues about the sweet talk of Al-Jolani and his men and cautioned against acts of revenge and violence against the Alawite minority, as well as their intention to annihilate the Kurdish autonomy,” Sa’ar said.

Syrian security forces reportedly massacred 830 Alawite Syrians on Friday and Saturday. The Alawite sect, to which deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad belonged, is about 10% of Syria’s population. Al-Sharaa, said his regime will hold anyone who killed civilians accountable, but also blamed “remnants of the foreign regime” whom he said were “trying to incite new strife and drag our country into a civil war.”

Sa’ar said, “This past weekend proved that our approach was realistic and, unfortunately, that my warnings were accurate. [Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the paramilitary group led by al-Sharaa until he became president in January,] mercilessly slaughtered their own people, their own citizens.”

“They were jihadists and remained jihadists, even if some of their leaders have put on suits,” he added.

The Israeli foreign minister called on the world to “come to its senses” and end its legitimization of the Syrian regime.

Sa’ar said that the IDF’s maintenance of a buffer zone and destroying weapons systems within Syria “have been proven to be the correct course of action … and farsighted.”

“Israel will not allow the emergence of a security threat on its border with Syria and will take all necessary measures to prevent it,” he said.

Sa’ar delivered the remarks to the Israeli press at the opening of a faction meeting of his United Right party in the Knesset.

Though Sa’ar only referred to Europe, policy in Washington has also trended toward giving the new government in Damascus the benefit of the doubt, with a bipartisan group of lawmakers working on sanctions relief tied to benchmarks showing the regime is moving in a positive direction. 

Before the violence over the weekend, two leading pro-Israel groups, AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee, sounded a neutral note towards Al-Sharaa’s government.

On Friday, as the attacks on Alawites began, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that “Jolani took off his galabiya and wore a suit and showed a moderate face. Now he took off his mask and exposed his real face: A jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaida school who perpetrates atrocities against the civilian population.”

“Israel will defend itself against any Syrian threat … We will keep southern Syria demilitarized and protect the Druze population living there. Whoever harms them will be harmed by us,” he added.