French President Emmanuel Macron commenced a state visit to Damascus Monday, actively working to restore France’s historic links to Syria.

• Macron became the first Western leader in Syria since the overthrow of the Assad regime in 2024.
• Yesterday, the two countries agreed to exchange ambassadors and signed cooperation agreements in finance, transport and health care. Also, French shipping group cma cgm signed a deal to manage air cargo freight at Damascus’s international airport.

Syria, like Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, was once part of the French colonial empire. While France still has strong cultural and political links with its other former Arab colonies, Syria, under the Assad regime, kept its distance.

• One cultural link binding the two is Syria’s large population of Christians. Before its civil war began in 2011, it had one of the Middle East’s largest Christian populations.

Assadist Syria, as well as Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, used to be proxies of Iran. Prophecies in Daniel 11 and Psalm 83 foretold that they would leave Iran’s orbit and become allies of Europe. Macron’s visit is helping to further this prophecy’s fulfillment. Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s free booklet The King of the South explains this in detail.