French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Damascus on Monday evening, marking the first visit by a Western European head of state since Syria’s new authorities assumed power in December 2024.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani welcomed Macron and his Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the airport upon their arrival.
Macron wrote online shortly after landing, “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.”
He added, “Together, let us open a new chapter of stability and peace,” signaling France’s intent to deepen its engagement with the post-Assad government.
Syrian state news agency SANA described the visit as “a pivotal step in the process of restoring Syria’s international presence,” underlining the symbolic weight of the French leader’s arrival.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been working to rebuild Syria’s international standing since militias under his control seized power from former dictator Bashar Assad following more than a decade of civil war.
Macron was a leading voice in calling for the lifting of sanctions against al-Sharaa, who had previously been designated a terrorist as the founder of the al-Nusra Front, a position that made Western engagement far from guaranteed.
In May 2025, Macron had hosted al-Sharaa in Paris for his first official visit to an EU country, a move that preceded the Syrian leader’s trips to Berlin to meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz and to Washington for talks with Donald Trump’s administration.
No French president had visited Syria since Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, a period that preceded Assad’s brutal crackdown on opposition protests and the long civil war that followed.
The security situation in Syria, though markedly improved, remains fragile, with a bomb blast at a Damascus cafe last week killing 10 people and ongoing tensions between government forces and Kurdish groups in the north and east.
The French presidency said ahead of the trip that Macron would advocate for “a free, pluralist Syria that respects each of its components,” with minority protections expected to feature prominently in his talks with al-Sharaa.
Several major French business figures are accompanying Macron on the trip, including Rodolphe Saade, chief executive of maritime transport giant CMA CGM, and TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanne, reflecting France’s commercial interest in Syria’s reconstruction.
Macron’s program outlined plans for informal talks with al-Sharaa ahead of official meetings on Tuesday, covering topics including reconstruction investment, the fight against Islamic State, and the presence of French nationals on Syrian soil.
In a significant cultural gesture, the Elysee Palace announced Macron would return 23 archaeological artefacts spanning Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Nabataean, Palmyrene, Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad civilizations, which had been loaned to the Arab World Institute in Paris in 2010 and could not be returned during the conflict.
Al-Sharaa is also expected to attend this week’s NATO summit in Ankara, where the White House has confirmed that US President Donald Trump will speak with him on the sidelines of the event.
