Islamic State group fiercely criticises Syria’s Sharaa following Trump meeting

The Islamic State extremist group has fiercely criticised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa following his meeting in Riyadh with US counterpart Donald Trump, in an article in its weekly newspaper Al-Nabaa.

The article, entitled “On Trump’s Doorstep” indicated that IS cells were still active in Syria and called on foreign jihadists present in the country to join “brigades deployed among you in the countryside”.

It warned them that they could become “a card that Al-Jolani burns in order to gain international acceptance”.

Ahmed Al-Sharaa was known as Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani when he led Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham, a hardline Islamist rebel group which spearheaded the December 2024 rebel overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and was affiliated to Al-Qaeda until 2017.

 He has since worked to moderate his image both domestically and globally but the continued presence of foreign fighters in Syria has been controversial.

The article accused Sharaa of trading “monotheism for idolatry, Islam for democracy” and favouring “those whose master is Trump over those whose master is [Prophet] Muhammad”.

It mocked Sharaa’s recent meeting with Trump and Trump’s announcement that sanctions on Syria would be lifted.

“Meeting with [Trump] and pleasing him have become a historic achievement which ‘revolutionaries’ are celebrating, while honour is being left behind at the Umayyad Square under the pretext of lifting American sanctions… but who will lift the divine sanctions?”

The article called Sharaa a “subordinate and perfidious traitor” who was now subservient to the US and had abandoned Islamic principles.

IS has long been opposed to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), clashing with it during the Syrian conflict, despite the two groups roots in Al-Qaeda.

After HTS-led rebels overthrew Assad, IS continued its verbal attacks on Al-Sharaa and his government, describing them as “apostates” and “crypto-secularists” committed to working for Western powers.