France’s Macron in Syria on first post-Assad visit by a Western leader

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 long-time 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, wrote on social media.Macron and Sharaa visited Damascus’s famous Umayyad Mosque, Agence France-Presse 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.