DAMASCUS, Syria — French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to make a historic trip to Syria, Syrian state media announced Sunday, which would make him the first leader from a Western nation to set foot in the country since former President Bashar Assad was removed from power in 2024.
The visit follows a meeting in Paris in May 2025, when Macron welcomed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa — the former Islamist leader who took control of Damascus — and pledged to push both the European Union and the United States to ease the heavy economic sanctions that had long burdened Syria. Most of those sanctions have since been lifted.
The French presidential palace offered no comment on the reported Syria trip when contacted Sunday. Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing al-Sharaa’s office, confirmed the planned visit but stopped short of providing a specific date. Notably, Macron is scheduled to attend a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to SANA, Macron will not be traveling alone — he is expected to bring investors and representatives from French companies, signaling a potential economic dimension to the visit.
Syria continues to grapple with the aftermath of a 14-year conflict that claimed the lives of nearly half a million people and forced millions more to flee their homes. The country’s infrastructure has been left in ruins, and despite large investment commitments from various nations and businesses, Syria still requires hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild and pull its population out of poverty.
