Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Ahmed al-Sharaa said in excerpts from the Sunday interview with the Saudi state-owned broadcaster.

He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.

Sharaa leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS) that ousted Bashar al-Assad on December 8, ending decades of Assad family rule and a 13-year civil war.

The HTS group will be dissolved in a national dialog conference, Sharaa told Al Arabiya.

On foreign ties, Sharaa said Syria has strategic interests with Russia. Russia has military bases in Syria, was a close Assad ally during the long civil war and has granted Assad asylum.

Sharaa said earlier this month that Syria's relations with Russia should serve common interests.

Sharaa also said he hopes the administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will lift sanctions imposed on Syria. Senior U.S. diplomats who visited Damascus this month said Sharaa came across as pragmatic and that Washington has decided to remove a $10 million bounty on the HTS leader's head.