Two bombs exploded on Tuesday 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, who has built close ties with Western states as he has sought to rebuild a country shattered by 13 years of civil war.
FRANCE READY TO HELP ON SECURITY, ECONOMY
The explosions struck a busy area of Damascus between the 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 Tuesday morning.
Posting on 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 ISIS, which has claimed several attacks on Syrian forces this year.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack. Sharaa said investigations were ongoing.
Macron, who led calls for the lifting of Western sanctions on Syria last year, was accompanied by business leaders, including the CEOs 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 to Syria €51 million ($58.3 million) of assets confiscated from the late Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar's uncle.
TotalEnergies' CEO said his company would discuss signing an offshore exploration contract with Syrian officials, but that lingering insecurity meant a return to onshore oil activities was still not a viable option.
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 meters (yards) away.
The second blast went off next to an ambulance parked at the scene, where some two dozen people had gathered.
Reuters video 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 1-1/2 years and ISIS hasn't re-emerged in the way many feared," he said.
DAMASCUS CAFE BOMBED LAST WEEK
The Syrian Interior Ministry said security forces had identified the bombs and were preparing to defuse them when they exploded.
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 them.
Last week, a bomb at a Damascus cafe killed nine people and wounded 20 others. There was no claim of responsibility.
Sharaa has pledged to build an inclusive new order in Syria since ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family.
France is currently represented in Syria by a charge d'affaires who is not fully present in Damascus. Macron said both countries would appoint ambassadors, whom Sharaa said would be exchanged as soon as possible.
