DAMASCUS – Two bombs exploded on July 7 near a hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron spent the night, wounding 18 people and overshadowing the first visit to Syria by a European Union head of state since Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
Macron, whose motorcade left the hotel shortly before the blasts, pressed ahead with his visit, meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the presidential palace. His office said he had not heard the blasts.
The attack underlined lingering security challenges facing Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda commander who has built close ties with Western states as he has sought to stabilise and rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
The explosions struck a busy area between the Syrian Tourism Ministry and the national museum across the street from the Four Seasons hotel, where a source in Macron’s delegation and Syrian security sources said he had spent the night and had met civil society groups on the morning of July 7.
Posting on social media platform X just after the blasts, Macron said his visit continued and praised the “dignity, courage and determination” of Syrians he had met.
“We are not naive about the risks, but they are being managed,” Macron said later in a news conference with Sharaa. “Certain groups” sought to prevent “Syria’s full and complete reintegration into the international community”, he added.
Macron also said France was working to redefine its security and military cooperation with Syria, including the potential support of French special forces to fight the militant group ISIS, which has claimed several attacks on Syrian forces in 2026.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the July 7 attack. Sharaa said investigations were ongoing.
Macron, who led calls for the lifting of Western sanctions on Syria in 2025, was accompanied by business leaders, including the chief executive officers of TotalEnergies and shipping group CMA CGM. He said France was ready to help rebuild Syria’s economy and banking sector.
The Elysee said CMA CGM signed a partnership deal with Syria, including air cargo freight handling, at Damascus airport, and that France and Syria would start a process to restore €51 million (S$75 million) of assets to Syria that were confiscated from the late Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar’s uncle.
Flames and billowing smoke
The first blast hit soon after Macron’s motorcade left for the presidential palace. Reuters footage showed flames and smoke billowing from the site when a second explosion was caught on camera a few metres away.
The second blast went off next to an ambulance parked at the scene, where some two dozen people had gathered.
Reuters video footage showed Macron’s motorcade heading along a highway towards the presidential palace before the blasts.
ISIS, an adversary of Sharaa during the civil war, declared a new phase of operations against his government in February.
Aron Lund of the Century International think-tank said such attacks could dent confidence in Syria’s recovery, but they posed no threat to government control over the country.
“It’s a worrying phenomenon, but I don’t think we should overstate it. It’s been 1½ years and Islamic State (ISIS) hasn’t re-emerged in the way many feared,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron being greeted by Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the Presidential Palace in Damascus on July 7.
PHOTO: EPA
Pledge to build new order tested by conflict
The Syrian Interior Ministry said security forces had identified two bombs planted near the Tourism Ministry and had been preparing to defuse them when they went off, describing the devices as crudely made.
The bombs – one of them placed in a car parked on the roadside and the other in a trash can – were planted outside a security cordon around Macron’s place of residence and posed no threat to his visit, the ministry said.
Internal security forces have launched search operations to identify those responsible, it said.
The French Presidency said the blasts were not audible from the presidential motorcade and a Reuters journalist with the press group accompanying Macron did not hear the blast or see any commotion during the French President’s morning events.
Last week, a bomb at a Damascus cafe killed nine people and wounded 20 others. There was no claim of responsibility.
Sharaa, a member of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, has pledged to build an inclusive new order in Syria since ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family. But his promise has been tested by bouts of violence pitting pro-government forces against members of religious and ethnic minority groups, with many hundreds killed in 2025. REUTERS
