Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, the spiritual leader of Syria’s Druze community, said his community in Sweida province, which constitutes the largest Druze concentration in the world, want independence and a strong alliance with Israel.

There are more than 300,000 Druze in Sweida province, located in Syria’s south.

“We see ourselves as an inseparable part of the State of Israel’s existence, as an arm that forged an alliance with Israel,” al-Hijri told Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot, in an interview published on Tuesday.

“Syria is moving toward partition, and building autonomy with independence is the future. In this way, we will build a better future for minorities and regional stability for the entire Middle East,” he said.

He acknowledged there might be need for a transitional stage of self-government under the supervision of an external guarantor. “In my eyes, the State of Israel is the right party for this,” al-Hijri said.

“The only crime for which we were murdered is that we are Druze,” he said. “This is an ISIS government that was established as a direct continuation of Al-Qaeda.”

“The previous regime also acted against us, but the current regime is the most brutal. They don’t just want to exterminate the Druze, but any minority that is not like them. It was a decision of the dark regime in Syria and of all the terrorist groups operating from Damascus. It’s genocide,” he said.

The regime still holds over 200 hostages, including children, whose fates remain unknown, he said.

“Israel was the only country in the world that intervened militarily and saved us from genocide at the time it happened …, airstrikes really stopped the massacre,” he told Yediot Achronot.

Al-Hijri expressed profound disappointment with the Arab countries. “There is not a single Arab country that supported us. They chose to side with the murderer and not the victim. The Arab press portrayed us as sons of the devil,” he said.

No Arab leader has even condemned the massacre, he added, and there are countries, led by Turkey, that are directly supporting the regime.

Al-Hijri said that the relationship between Israel and the Druze in Syria is not new. “The connection was forged long before the fall of the Assad regime. There are blood and family ties and it’s a natural connection,” he said.

He said Syria’s Druze aspire to be a modern state like Israel. “This is the ideology to which we aspire. We are peace-loving, not aggressive, and we want to preserve our special character,” he said.

Leadership of the Druze community has been in the hands of the al-Hijri family since the 19th century. Al-Hijri, 60, was born in Venezuela after his father moved there with others from the community. Today, 60,000 Druze live in Venezuela, the largest Druze community outside the Middle East.

Al-Hijri eventually returned to Syria and studied law at Damascus University. In 2012, he replaced his brother, who had died in a car accident, as the spiritual leader.

Since July, the Druze community in Sweida has been fully mobilized, he said, with all residents ready to defend their homes.

The district is cut off. People don’t leave the region for work or study, patients are denied treatment outside the area, and cancer patients often have no care as there is no oncology department in the province.

There is a severe shortage of food products and medicines. “The residents are dealing with a very difficult reality,” he said.

Entire villages were burned. The Syrian transitional government controls 36 burned villages, or about 5% of the 5,550-square-kilometer (2,100 sq. mile) province.

The Druze community has no ties with the Damascus regime, which he said is aligned with Al-Qaeda ideology, making coexistence impossible. Those who cooperate with the regime will only make it easier for jihadists to enter their countries, al-Hijri warned.