Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Wednesday, May 7th, on his first European trip since overthrowing the government of Bashar al-Assad. President al-Sharaa is seeking help in post-war reconstruction and economic cooperation, as well as political legitimacy through his visit to the Élysée Palace.
The meeting was met with controversy already before it happened, as President al-Sharaa and other top Syrian officials have roots in the Al-Qaeda jihadist network. According to one French official, they are aware of the “past” of some figures in the Syrian government, and they are demanding that there be “no complacency with terrorist movements”.
“If we are inviting him (here, it is precisely to ask him to go further in the fight against impunity,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters. Al-Sharaa headed the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group with connections to Al-Qaeda. He is still under an international travel ban from the UN, meaning France had to ask for an exception for the meeting to happen.
Rassemblement National’s Marine Le Pen said the talks are “provocative and irresponsible” and that the president should not invite a “jihadist” to France. Laurent Wauquiez (Les Républicains) also denounced the meeting as “a serious error.”
