Via JPost:

Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the head of al-Qaida, released an audio statement online through the organization’s media branch, as-Sahab on Sunday calling for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate after the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Let your fight be in the name of Allah and with the aim of establishing Allah’s sharia [law] as the ruling system,” he said according to the Now Lebanon website.

He called on the Syrian rebels to work to achieve an Islamic state, “Do all that you can so that your holy war yields a jihadist Islamic state.”