After the group's formation, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham arrested the group's leadership in November 2017, as well as Sami al-Oraydi who left HTS, whom was formerly al-Nusra's top Sharia official, after the arrests Ansar al-Furqan and HTS agreed not to weaken or compete with each other, until the later establishment of the Guardians of Religion Organization led by several HTS defectors and al-Qaeda loyalists including Sami al-Oraydi.[8]