President Emmanuel Macron will receive despite the Ahmed al-Charaa criticisms, the acting Syrian president on Wednesday at the Élysée.
President of the Syrian Arab Republic in acting since January 29, 2025, Ahmed al-Charaa, 42, also known by his war name of Abu Mohammed al-Joulani, will be received on Wednesday May 7 at the Élysée. This is his very first trip to Europe. But the arrival of the ex-Djihadist who overthrew the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which is more at the presidential palace, has been receiving since strong criticism in the political class. The extreme right in particular does not hide its opposition. “Stupor and dismay. Receive a jihadist who passed by Daesh and Al Qaeda, self -proclaimed president of Syria, even though the Islamist militias who have sowed among our compatriots during bloody attacks, massacre minorities, is the responsibility of provocation and irresponsibility,” said Marine Le Pen on X.
And to add: “Once again, Emmanuel Macron damages the image of France and discredits his commitment, especially with his allies, in the fight against Islamism.” In the center and on the left, however, we temper. “Who did not make abuses [en Syrie] ? “Questions the centrist of the Liot group, Charles de Courson, relayed by Franceinfo. For him,” at one point, you have to know how to turn to the future and see how we can restore civil peace “.” France must be in diplomatic maneuver, and too bad if Marine Le Pen obviously preferred to discuss with the Damascus butcher “, adds a socialist deputy, questioned by Franceinfo.
Syrian president Ahmed al-Charaa, an Islamist?
Born in 1982 in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed al-Charaa arrived in Syria and more particularly in Damascus, while he is 7 years old. He grew up in a chic district of the city and follows by growing up various studies (medicine, communication, literary Arab). He would have started to radicalize during the second antifada, when he was 17-18 years old. With the start of the war in Iraq in 2003, he left university to take up arms. It was there that he rallies the Islamist group Saraya Al-Mujahideen, who will later lend allegiance to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Prisoner of the Americans for several years, Ahmed al-Charaa was finally released. He later joined the Islamic State of Iraq. However, he returned to Syria after the start of the demonstrations in 2011, against the Bashar al-Assad regime. There, he formed the group of Rebelle front al-Nosra, which earned him to be appointed in 2013 as “global terrorist” by the United States. In 2016, the Al-Nosra Front broke with Al-Qaeda and became the Fatah Al-Cham front which merged in 2016 with other groups to form the famous Hayat Tahrir al-Cham, a rebel Islamist group of the Syrian civil war first led by Abu Jaber before Hmed al-Charaa takes command. At the head of a coalition of rebels, it is this group which managed in November-December 2024 to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
In view of the past of Ahmed al-Charaa, Paris has already said that it will recall “its requirements vis-à-vis the Syrian government, in the forefront of which the stabilization of the region and in particular Lebanon, as well as the fight against terrorism”. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, to defend this Tuesday on RTL waves the position of the Élysée: “Do not initiate dialogue with these transitional authorities […] It would be to be irresponsible towards the French and above all it would be red carpet for Daesh. “Because” the fight against terrorism “, just like” the mastery of migratory flows and drug trafficking “are played” in Syria “. And the Quai d’Orsay to add, as Le Figaro : “It takes him [Ahmed al-Charaa, ndlr.] Give a chance, his failure is not an option. “
