Syian aide insists she only did what ‘any ambitious American girl would do’

Miss Jaafari helped secure Walters interview with Mr Assad, but has insisted
there was no link between her being accepted to Columbia and Walters.

During an hour-long conversation Miss Jaafari told The Telegraph of her
encounters with the Syrian dictator who would come to the communications
office where she worked to meet with senior advisers.

“He would come to the offices, talk to us face to face and he would leave,”
she said. “It was during a crisis so we had to be a little more engaged in
everything. He would talk to all the staff, he would talk to the interns, he
would ask questions and he would leave. He was very friendly to us.”

When asked whether she believed the Syrian government’s claim that the
widespread killing of civilians was the work of “terrorists”, Miss Jafaari
replied: “I wasn’t into all these details.”

Her account is difficult to reconcile with the hundreds of emails she sent to
Mr Assad and others since the Syrian uprising began in March last year.

The messages, which were obtained by opposition groups and passed to the Daily
Telegraph, show a young woman with direct access to Syria’s leader who
played a major role in shaping his response to Western media coverage.

Between August 2011 and January of this year she emailed Mr Assad 118 times.
What is most striking is the informality with which Miss Jafaari addressed
the President she claims to barely know. “ur amazing and u look like ur a 25
years old super star in the interview,” she wrote to him in December last
year. “r u upset with me :(“ she asked several days later.

In an email to a BBC producer she described herself as the “Public Relations
and Communication freelancer that is holding the Presidential account” and
explained that all requests to interview Mr Assad should go through her.

By Miss Jafaari’s own admission, it was the Walters interview – which she was
blamed for when it turned out to be unexpectedly tough – that soured her
relationship with Mr Assad in December 2011.

“I admit, I got in trouble,” she said, describing how “the vibe” in her office
changed as colleagues sensed the President’s displeasure with the interview.

“I’m a Syrian but I was raised in the West so maybe I had different ideas.
Obviously, he wasn’t happy with the interview but that had nothing to do
with me coming back [to New York].”

When asked whether she still felt loyal to the man she once described as
“loved by his people”, Miss Jaafari refused to say. “ I am loyal to my
country, I am loyal to my people.”

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