In a new interview with Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV, Syrian Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, one of the nation’s top religious leaders, accused the Syrian rebel forces of being in league with Israel, claiming they’d repeatedly made offers of a peace deal centered around Assad making concessions to Israel.

Hassoun said that since the civil war began in 2011, the nation had repeatedly received unofficial offers from rebel groups saying they’d end hostilities if the government agreed to a deal with Israel, including the expulsion of all Palestinian resistance from Syria, and cutting all relations with Hezbollah.

He went on to say that al-Sham was once “a vast territory extending from the Sinai desert to Hejaz desert and was not divided into a small state,” and that Britain and France had carved it up for political purposes, saying the Western efforts to divide the region continue to this day.

Hassoun went on to say that “40,000 Muslims from Europe are fighting in Syria,” complaining that none of them are fighting for the liberation of Palestinian, adding that several Muslim countries are fighting in Syria and in Yemen, but none are fighting for Palestine.