The last French president to visit Syria was Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009, before Assad’s regime brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 2011, triggering a civil war that killed more than half a million people and devastated the country’s infrastructure and economy.
Early last year, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani became the first foreign head of state to visit Damascus after the new government led by President Ahmed al Sharaa took power.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen visited in January this year, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy followed in April.
But Macron is the first head of an EU state and prominent Western leader to head to the Syrian capital, after hosting Sharaa in Paris last year.
The announcement came after a bombing on Thursday at a Damascus cafe killed 10 people.
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