Emmanuel Macron visits Syria, 18 months after Assad's fall

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Damascus on Monday evening for the first visit by a Western European head of state since Syria's new authorities took power in December 2024. 

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani welcomed the French leader and his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the airport.

"I have come to express France's commitment to the Syrian people. For a sovereign Syria, united in its diversity and at peace with its neighbors," Macron wrote online soon after arrival.

"Together, let us open a new chapter of stability and peace."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Damascus earlier in the year, as did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been trying to reboot Syria's international credentials and revive ties with other countries since the militias under his control seized power from former dictator Bashar Assad after more than a decade of civil war. 

Syrian state news agency SANA described Macron's visit as "a pivotal step in the process of restoring Syria's international presence." 

In May of 2025, Macron had hosted al-Sharaa on his first official visit to an EU country, a move that preceded the Syrian leader's visits to Berlin to meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz and to Washington for talks with Donald Trump's administration. 

Given that al-Sharaa was once subject to extensive sanctions as the founder and leader of the terrorist group known as the al-Nusra Front, it was anything but certain whether western powers would welcome his rapid rise to the presidency. Macron was a leading voice in calling for these sanctions to be lifted as part of a bid to turn a new page.

No French president had visited Syria since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, not long before Assad's regime intensified a brutal crackdown on opposition protests that ultimately led to more than a decade of civil war across multiple fronts.