It’s not clear where Al Jazeera’s interview with Golani took place. In it, Golani wore a plaid shirt with a cloth over his head, and was shot from behind, so that his face was not visible to the camera. NBC News cannot independently confirm that the speaker was the Nusra leader, but terrorism analysts said they had no reason to doubt it.

Golani said “all options are open,” for an attack on the West if his group felt compelled to act in self-defense, but he insisted that Nusra is focused on battling the Assad regime inside Syria.

“The fight in Syria will only end in Damascus (the capital),” Golani said, adding that his orders from Zawahiri are to topple the Syrian regime and fight Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group backing Assad’s regime.

Golani also issued a threat to the Shia Alawite community of Syria, saying, “if the Alawites disowned Bashar al Assad, stopped supporting his regime, and if they stopped practicing their erroneous doctrine, we would forgive them.” Assad himself is Alawite.