Wearing sunglasses indoors, Macron meets representatives of Syrian civil society in Damascus

Again wearing sunglasses indoors, France’s President Emmanuel Macron attends a breakfast in Damascus with representatives of Syrian civil society.


Macron wore the aviators inside at the Davos conference in January, with officials explaining the French president had a minor medical issue. Macron landed in Syria yesterday, in the first visit to Damascus by a European Union head of state since rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024.


The visit underlines Syria’s geopolitical transformation under Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who has established close ties with Western and Middle Eastern powers that shunned Assad, as he seeks to rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.