Two bombs exploded near Emmanuel Macron’s hotel in Damascus on July 7 as the French president met Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa at the presidential palace, wounding at least 18 people, according to multiple outlets including NPR and Reuters.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said the devices – one in a parked car, one in a garbage bin near the Tourism Ministry and the Damascus National Museum – detonated while security forces were preparing to defuse them, Euronews reported. No group claimed responsibility. Four police officers were among the wounded; no deaths were reported.
Macron’s office said he was unharmed and his meeting with Sharaa continued. “Nothing can smother the aspiration of Syrian women and men to live in a fully sovereign, safe, pluralistic, and united Syria,” Macron wrote on X afterward. “My visit continues,” CBS News reported.
The trip is the first by an EU head of state since Sharaa’s forces toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, following visits by Qatar’s emir, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Macron arrived with an economic delegation including the CEOs of TotalEnergies and CMA CGM. The Élysée Palace said CMA CGM signed a deal covering air cargo freight at Damascus airport, building on the shipping group’s 30-year concession to run Latakia port secured in 2025, Reuters reported.
The blasts came five days after a cafe bombing near Damascus’s Justice Palace killed at least 10 people. Islamic State has claimed a series of attacks on Sharaa’s government since February, but no group claimed the July 7 blasts. The visit shows France moving to strengthen its role in Syria’s transition even as the country’s peace remains fragile.
