France has started the process of returning assets worth €51 million ($58 million) to Syria that were confiscated from former vice president Rifaat Al Assad, under an agreement signed during President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Damascus.
"Syria will be restituted more than €50 million, derived from the seizure of the former dictator's family's ill-gotten gains," Mr Macron said on Tuesday, speaking in Damascus at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Ahmad Al Shara.
"These funds will be returned to the Syrian people to finance concrete development projects within the country."
The transfer of funds was one of many agreements and gestures of goodwill unveiled during Mr Macron's historic visit to Damascus.
The meeting between the two leaders went ahead despite two explosions in the capital on Tuesday, near the Four Seasons Hotel where Mr Macron had stayed on his first night. Authorities said 18 people were injured.
The French President is the first European Union head of state to visit Syria since the Assad regime was overthrown in December 2024. The last western leader to visit Syria before the start of the civil war in 2011 was Mr Macron's predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2008.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his Syrian counterpart Asaad Al Shibani signed a letter of intent stating that "France and Syria are initiating the process of returning €51 million derived from the seizure of Rifaat Al Assad’s ill-gotten assets, which were confiscated by the French justice system."
It will be the first time France has applied a 2021 law that created a legal framework allowing for the restitution of funds from the sale of ill-gotten gains seized by the state.
Discussions on the transfer began in earnest in February when a Syrian delegation visited Paris. “It's the first time that funds looted by the former authorities would be returned to the Syrian state,” lawyer Mohammad Al Abdallah, director of the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre, said at the time.
Al Assad, the uncle of former president Bashar Al Assad, was sentenced to prison in France in 2022 for embezzling Syrian state funds and using them to build a property empire across Europe. His assets in the country have been estimated at €90 million.
Standing by Syria
The agreement regarding his assets was one of many announced Tuesday, with France and Syria establishing a comprehensive framework for co-operation in the economic, cultural and heritage, educational, healthcare, security and justice sectors amid efforts to rebuild Syria, strengthen its security and help it achieve prosperity.
Mr Macron sought to capitalise on France's persistent refusal to mend ties with the Assad regime in the years preceding its fall, despite a European push led by Italy to re-establish relations with Syria.
“We stood by the Syrian people when they sought unity and freedom, and we never wavered from that path,” Mr Macron said. "We remained steadfast to the very end and were among the first to reopen ties when the time came to do so at the dawn of this new era."
He was speaking hours after explosions were heard in Damascus as he was on his way to meet Mr Al Shara - highlighting persisting security issues in Syria.
The explosions, which left 18 people injured, took place near the hotel in which Mr Macron was staying. He did not hear the blasts because he was in a meeting at the People's Palace with Mr Al Shara when they took place.
Mr Macron signalled strong diplomatic, political and economic support to Syria, announcing that both countries had agreed to nominate their respective ambassadors. He hailed Mr Al Shara's "moderation and sense of responsibilities despite a difficult context" in a reference to Israeli incursions on Syrian territory, which he described as "unacceptable".
Syria's aim to rebuild ties with Lebanon "on an equal footing" should be supported, Mr Macron said. Under the Assad government, Syria occupied Lebanon from 1976 to 2000 and interfered in internal politics.
Mr Macron said French special forces could be deployed to train Syrian security forces in counter-terrorism, in a similar manner to what they have done in Iraq. "We are prepared – within a framework we are currently redefining – to provide support through special forces in the fight against terrorism and terrorist groups," he said.
On the business side, France will assist Syria in rebuilding its banking system to attract investors, Mr Macron said. Among the delegation of chief executives accompanying him were Rodolphe Saade of shipping giant CMA CGM and Patrick Pouyanne of TotalEnergies.
"France believes in your country’s future – both in its immediate reconstruction and as a central player in the region: at the heart of energy, logistics and data interconnection corridors, and at the heart of the new bond to be forged between the Gulf and Europe," Mr Macon said.
As a gesture of trust, the French President brought 23 artefacts, which had been kept at the Arab World Centre in Paris, to Syria. They had originally been lent by the Syrian government to France in 2010 and had not been returned because of the start of the civil war the following year.
Mr Macron said francophone Christian schools that had been forcibly closed by the Assad regime would be reopened, as would the French research centre, the Institute of the Near East.
