The Syrian government has scrambled to squash rumours the new president has been ‘cooperating’ with the United States to fight ISIS for nearly a decade just days after he was welcomed to the White House. Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and President Donald Trump enjoyed a very warm meeting on November 10 which led to the new Middle Eastern leader saying he would help the US fight Islamist terror groups in Syria. 

But away from the cameras and back home, the Directorate of Media of the Syrian Arab Republic for News issued an urgent statement following reports Al-Sharaa had been helping the Americans secretly for almost a decade. The New York Times said on Wednesday that Al-Sharaa, who once fought for the Islamist terror group Al-Qaeda, had been covertly cooperating with the US-led Global Coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda since 2016. 

However, in a statement issued today (Friday) the Syrian government said: “We affirm the inaccuracy of the information reported in some press reports regarding the existence of cooperation between His Excellency the President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and the coalition led by the United States against the organizations “ISIS” and “Al-Qaeda” since 2016, and we wish to clarify that the aforementioned does not go beyond being claims that have no relation to the truth.

“The Directorate indicates that the President has not coordinated or cooperated with any foreign entity in this context, nor has he issued directives related to that, confirming that all decisions and measures taken at that time came by an independent internal decision without any coordination or request from any external party.”

The statement could prove embarrassing for Donald Trump’s administration, after the US president called Al-Sharaa a “young, attractive guy” and a “fighter” and when asked about the Syrian president’s Islamist history, he has said it was “rough” before adding “I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance”.

However, it appears from the statement by Al-Sharaa’s government that the Syrian administration is keen to stress to supporters back home that cooperation with United States has not been long-running. 

Journalist and Arab affairs expert Edy Cohen told Express.co.uk that President Al-Sharaa, who was previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, was able to seize power in December last year because of ISIS sympathisers within the ranks of his supporters. 

A previous investigation by the Daily Express uncovered images and video of fighters from Al-Sharaas HTS party wearing symbols associated with ISIS as they swept to power in December and January last year. 

Mr Cohen said: “He couldn’t do it alone, he did it with ISIS. But now he’s got what he wanted with the sanctions lifted against Syria and the personal ones against him, and he has received legitimacy in the White House.

“But the problem is that ISIS, the real ISIS, doesn’t agree with him, and there have been reports that they tried to kill him twice. So on the one hand he wants to show the US and Europe that he is fighting ISIS, but in Arabic he wants to show he supports ISIS and does not cooperate with ‘non-believers’.”