The leader of mutinous soldiers who ousted Niger's democratically elected president said Saturday night that they will return the country to civilian rule within three years.

General Abdourahmane Tchiani gave no details on the plan, saying on state television only that the principles for the transition would be decided within 30 days at a dialogue to be hosted by the junta.

"I am convinced that … we will work together to find a way out of the crisis, in the interests of all," Tchiani said, commenting after his first meeting with a regional delegation seeking to resolve the West African nation's crisis.

The delegation from the ECOWAS bloc, headed by former Nigerian head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar, also met separately with toppled President Mohamed Bazoum. It joined reconciliation efforts by Leonardo Santos Simao, the United Nations special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, who arrived Friday.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on August 10 ordered the deployment of a "standby force" to restore constitutional rule in Niger. On Friday, the ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security, Abdel-Fatau Musah, said 11 of its 15 member states had agreed to commit troops to military intervention, saying they were "ready to go."

The soldiers who overthrew Bazoum last month have quickly entrenched themselves in power, rebuffed most dialogue efforts, and kept Bazoum, his wife and son under house arrest in the capital.

The 11 member states that agreed to intervene militarily don't include the bloc's three other countries under military rule following coups: Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso. The latter two have warned they would consider any intervention in Niger an act of war. On Friday, Niger's state television said that Mali and Burkina Faso had dispatched warplanes in a show of solidarity. 'A very fragile country'

Friday's announcement was the latest in a series of so far empty threats by ECOWAS to forcefully restore democratic rule in Niger, conflict analysts say. Immediately after the coup, the bloc gave the junta seven days to release and restore Bazoum, a deadline that came and went with no action.

"The putschists won't be holding their breath this time over the renewed threat of military action," said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank.

The junta leaders are cementing their rule and appointing loyal commanders to key units while ECOWAS has no experience with military action in hostile territory and would have no local support if it tried to intervene, he said.

"Niger is a very fragile country that can easily turn, in case of a military intervention, into a failed state like Sudan," Laessing said.

ECOWAS used force to restore order in 2017 in Gambia when longtime President Yahya Jammeh refused to step down after he lost the presidential election. That move involved diplomatic efforts led by the then-presidents of Mauritania and Guinea, while Jammeh appeared to be acting on his own after the Gambian army pledged allegiance to the winner of the election, Adama Barrow. US official arrives in Niger

Also on Saturday, the new U.S. ambassador to Niger, Kathleen FitzGibbon, arrived in the capital, said Matthew Miller, spokesman for the State Department. The U.S. hasn't had an ambassador in the country for nearly two years.