Macron in Syria on first post-Assad visit by West European head of state

DAMASCUS: French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Damascus on Monday for the first visit by a Western European head of state since Syria’s new authorities took power.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been rebooting Syria’s international credentials and seeking to revive his struggling country after toppling longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

“I have come to reaffirm France’s commitment to the Syrian people. To a sovereign Syria, united in its diversity and at peace with its neighbours,” Macron, who will leave on Tuesday, announced on X.

Macron and Sharaa visited Damascus’s famous Umayyad Mosque, AFP journalists reported, after a working dinner and ahead of official meetings on Tuesday.

The last French president to visit the country was Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, before Assad brutally crushed pro-democracy protests in 2011, sparking a conflict that killed more than half a million people and devastated Syria’s infrastructure and industry.

A deadly bombing at a Damascus cafe last week was the latest security challenge for the new Islamist authorities who are trying to reunify the country after more than 13 years of civil war.

Syrian state news agency SANA described the visit as “a pivotal step in the process of restoring Syria’s international presence”.

“We hope this visit will represent a new start for Syria,” said Faisal Azouz, 76, a retired teacher.

‘Safe and stable’

In an interview broadcast by French channel BFMTV on Monday, Sharaa hailed France’s “constructive role” in the post-Assad transition.

“Macron has sought to engage with us in Syria and followed every step and stage of the transition,” Sharaa said, adding that his French counterpart had helped in the lifting of international sanctions on Damascus.

Ordinary Syrians also welcomed the visit. Dressmaker Diala Akkashe, 33, saw it as a vote of confidence.

“If Syria wasn’t safe and stable, no president or foreign official would take the risk of coming,” she said.

In May 2025, Macron hosted Sharaa on his first official visit to a European country, a move that preceded the Syrian leader’s trip to Washington last year to meet US President Donald Trump.

Macron is accompanied by several key economic players including Rodolphe Saade, chief executive of maritime transport giant CMA CGM, and TotalEnergies head Patrick Pouyanne.

Discussions are expected to address Syria’s reconstruction and investments, with French businesses still wary of returning to the country.

The French president is eager for Sharaa to maintain his pledge to protect minorities, after sectarian bloodshed in Syria’s Alawite and Druze heartlands last year.

Another topic will be the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group and the ongoing presence of a handful of French jihadists on Syrian soil.

Syria joined the international anti-IS coalition last year.

Kurdish issue

Bassam Barabandi, a Syrian diplomat and founder of the Nexus MENA think tank, called Macron’s visit “very important” and expressed hope it would shift France’s Syria policy “to be more realistic”, including on the Kurdish issue.

With international support, Syria’s Kurds were key to the fight against IS during the civil war, leading to the jihadists’ territorial defeat there in 2019.

But under military pressure, the Kurds this year agreed a deal to integrate their institutions into the state, in a blow to their long-held aspirations for autonomy.

Denis Bauchard, former ambassador and expert at the French Institute of International Relations, said Macron’s trip reflects his “desire to consolidate the new regime in Syria at a time when Israel is doing everything it can to keep Syria weak and fragmented, distrustful of the shadow of Turkey behind Sharaa”.

Neighbouring Turkey is a key supporter of Syria’s new authorities, while Israel has carried out repeated incursions and bombings in the country since Assad’s overthrow.

Macron is to travel to Ankara on Tuesday evening for the Nato summit, and will hold talks there the following day with Turkey’s president.

The White House has said Trump would meet Sharaa on Wednesday on the sidelines of the summit.

France has disagreed with suggestions by Trump that Syria could tackle Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israel and the Iran-backed group have been at war.

Sharaa has denied that his country intends to intervene in Lebanon.