Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa said Sunday that holding elections could take up to four years, marking his first comment on a potential timeline since Bashar Assad's ouster earlier this month.

Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, al-Sharaa said in excerpts from the interview with the Saudi state-owned broadcaster, Al Arabiya. He also said it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.

Al-Sharaa leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that ousted Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, ending decades of Assad family rule and a 13-year civil war. He said HTS will be dissolved in a national dialogue conference.

On foreign ties, al-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.

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

Al-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 al-Sharaa came across as pragmatic and that Washington has decided to remove a $10 million bounty on the HTS leader's head.