The HTS leader claims to have renounced his past and says he now embraces pluralism and tolerance.
Bashar al-Assad's cousin has said Syria's new leaders cannot be trusted to shake off their extremist past and unite the country.
According to foreign media, Ribal al Assad, an exiled critic of his cousin, was harsh in his assessment of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) and claimed it was already carrying out revenge killings.
Referring to HTS leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani, he told Gillian Joseph on Sky News' The World: "The guy has $10 million, he was a member of ISIS and then moved to become the leader of Al Qaeda in Syria".
"And they committed as many atrocities in Syria as the regime," he added, A2 CNN writes.
He compared it to dashed hopes that Afghanistan's Taliban would reform themselves, adding: "You think people who committed hundreds of thousands of atrocities are now going to say 'we're in power and we're going to change?'
"You remember Hamas when they came to power after throwing all the PLO people off the roofs of buildings in Gaza. Same thing."
HTS has said it has moved forward and will treat all of Syria's minority groups fairly.
The group's leader, Abu Mohammed al Jolani, told Sky News last week: "The fear was the presence of the regime. The country is moving towards development and reconstruction. It is moving towards stability."
The HTS leader is a former member of the Islamic State of Iraq and led the al Qaeda affiliate in Syria before cutting ties with it in 2016.
Abu Mohammed al Jolani, the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) rebel group, made his comments to a Western news organization after Assad's government was toppled.
He remains a US-designated terrorist, but has spent years trying to distance himself from his former ties to al Qaeda. He now claims to have renounced his past and says he embraces pluralism and tolerance.
However, Ribal al Assad claimed that the group - which swept into Syria to finally topple President Assad just over a week ago - was already carrying out assassinations, writes A2 CNN. (A2 Televizion)
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