Assad: The American-led coalition is giving us information on airstrikes against ISIS

However, Assad denied there had been direct cooperation between Damascus and the Obama administration.

In a rare interview, he also ruled out joining the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS as long as Washington was supporting rebels battling his regime, calling them “terrorists.”

“We don’t have the will and we don’t want [to] for one simple reason: because we cannot be [in] alliance with the country [that] supports the terrorism,” Assad told the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen.