Macron Will Visit Syria, the First Western Leader to Do So Since Assad's Fall

French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Syria, Syrian state media announced Sunday, making him the first Western head of state to visit the country since the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in 2024. The trip would be a striking marker of how quickly Syria's new government has moved from international pariah toward diplomatic rehabilitation.

The state-run SANA news agency said Macron is expected to meet Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa to discuss strengthening bilateral ties and issues of common interest, and that the French leader would be accompanied by investors and representatives of French companies. The two are expected to hold a roundtable with their delegations focused on regional and international developments and on cooperation across several sectors. SANA did not specify a date for the visit.

Al-Sharaa, a former Islamist rebel commander who led the offensive that toppled Assad and then seized power in Damascus, has spent the past two years working to present himself as a pragmatic statesman capable of reuniting and rebuilding a shattered country. Macron hosted al-Sharaa in Paris in May 2025 and pledged to press the European Union and the United States to lift the crippling sanctions that had isolated Syria for years — most of which have since been removed.

The planned visit reflects a broader Western bet that engagement, investment and sanctions relief can stabilize Syria and blunt the influence of rivals in a strategically vital corner of the Middle East. France, with deep historical ties to Syria dating to its colonial-era mandate, is positioning itself at the front of that effort, and the presence of a business delegation signals that Paris sees commercial opportunity in the reconstruction of the country's ruined infrastructure.

The stakes are enormous. Syria's 14-year civil war killed an estimated half a million people, displaced millions more and left cities, power plants and industry in ruins; rebuilding is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. The timing of Macron's trip was not confirmed, but it comes as he is due to attend a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 8 and 9 — placing the visit within a week of intensive diplomacy across the region.