Macron hosts Syria's de facto president and ex-Qaeda leader at Elysee
Syria’s de facto leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani has met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in his first visit to a European country.
Jolani, who remains under United Nations terrorism sanctions due to his leadership of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, was granted a rare exemption to travel to France.
Macron shook hands and posed with Jolani, who previously had a $10 million bounty for his capture on the US terror list, before he took over Syria.
The Elysee Palace said in a statement on Thursday that Jolani sought to “accompany the transition towards a free, stable, sovereign Syria that respects all components of Syrian society.”
The French government, which has come under strong criticism for ignoring Jolani’s past and current crimes, has said talks with Jolani would also focus on the handling of Druze and Alawite communities, targeted in recent attacks.
Since the start of March, hundreds of Alawite families have been massacred by HTS forces under the command of Jolani. Dozens of young Alawite women have been kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery by the former Daesh and al-Qaeda fighters.
The sectarian violence recently extended to Druze villages south of Damascus, where heavy clashes broke out last week.
Despite all that, Macron’s administration, which never normalized relations with the former government of President Bashar al-Assad, has gradually increased its diplomatic presence in Damascus, recently appointing a chargé d’affaires and dispatching a team of diplomats.
In January, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock were in the Syrian capital for talks on behalf of the European Union.
The French president also supported a “gradual lifting” of EU sanctions against Syria and revealed that he is “trying to persuade” the US to postpone its troop withdrawal from the Arab country.
Macron on Thursday spoke about the situation in the Lebanon-Syria border, where extremist groups allied with Jolani have attacked Lebanese army positions.
During the meeting, Jolani expressed readiness to normalize ties with Israel. “There are indirect negotiations with Israel through mediators to de-escalate tensions and prevent a loss of control,” he said.
Israeli warplanes have recently conducted airstrikes adjacent to the presidential palace in the Syrian capital of Damascus, amid the silence of the ruling HTS-led administration.
Since Assad’s government collapsed in December, Syria has been plagued by a widespread Israeli occupation across large swathes of the country’s south. It has also been hit by hundreds of Israeli airstrikes, mainly targeting military infrastructure that belonged to the former Syrian army.
