The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, went to Damascus on Thursday to meet his Syrian counterpart and discuss the issue of the fight against terrorism, but also the tensions with the Kurds in the north of the country, and the fear of an escalation between the United States and Iran.
Published on: 05/02/2026 - 15:11
The message from the Quai d'Orsay is clear. The continuation of the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) is an “absolute priority” for Paris, said Thursday February 5, the head of French diplomacy visiting Syria and Iraq, calling on the Syrian authorities to fully implement the agreement recently concluded with the Kurds.
“For ten years, France has fought, fought tirelessly and mercilessly, Daesh terrorists in Iraq as in Syria,” declared Jean-Noël Barrot following an interview with his Syrian counterpart, Assaad al-Chaibani.
“The fight against Islamist terrorism is the main purpose of my trip to Syria and Iraq. I came on an anti-Daesh mission because the security of French people is also at stake here,” he then said after an interview with his Iraqi counterpart, Fouad Hussein, in Baghdad.
The minister, who held numerous interviews on Thursday, "noted the major role of Iraq" in this area while the country "takes responsibility for the reception of several thousand detainees" locked in Syrian jails.
His visit comes a few days before a meeting of the Western anti-jihadist coalition on Monday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Emmanuel Macron wants to “avoid a bloodbath”
The Kurdish forces, who were the spearhead of the anti-jihadist fight, had to, under pressure from Damascus, withdraw from large swaths of the north of the country where there are jihadist prisons and camps sheltering their families. The powerful Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by the Kurds) must be integrated into the Syrian army.
Jean-Noël Barrot underlined the "personal involvement" of French President Emmanuel Macron, "to avoid a bloodbath, to facilitate a ceasefire, so that an agreement is found" between Damascus and the Kurds.
In Erbil where he met Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Jean-Noël Barrot once again pleaded for "the integration of the Kurds into a united Syria" and the full implementation of the January 29 agreement. “Recognition of the identity of the Kurds is a condition for the recovery of Syria, as it was in Iraq,” he stressed.
In the evening, he spoke at length with the leader of the Kurdish forces, Mazloum Abdi, who was concerned about the implementation of the agreement. Together they reviewed the terms of the treaty point by point.
If the Syrian minister did not make a statement following the meeting with Jean-Noël Barrot, the head of Iraqi diplomacy reaffirmed Baghdad's support for the agreement at the end of January, stressing that the instability in Syria was "negatively" affecting Iraq, which will cooperate "with the Syrian side in continuing the fight against Daesh".
Next stop, Lebanon
The agreement dashed the Kurds' hopes of retaining the autonomous zone that they had established in the north and northeast of Syria during the civil war which ravaged this country from 2011 to 2024. But "France stands and will always stand alongside the Kurdish people so that their rights are respected," said Jean-Noël Barrot. “The horizon of the Kurds of Syria must not be limited to their region: they have the vocation, as in Iraq, to take their full part in Syrian political life,” he added.
In addition to the clashes between the authorities in Damascus and the FDS, the ever-present threat of a military escalation between the United States and Iran had decided the French minister to go to the region. Friday and Saturday, he will continue his tour in Lebanon.
In Iraq as in Lebanon, Jean-Noël Barrot wishes to bring "a form of reassurance" to countries which have groups allied to Iran on their soil: Shiite armed groups and the Hezbollah movement. “These countries are likely to be dragged into an escalation (...), we must be able to discuss with these two countries (...) the challenge represented by this crisis around Iran,” explained a French diplomatic source.
Iran and the United States are due to hold discussions on Friday in the Sultanate of Oman, as Donald Trump has positioned a considerable naval and military strike force in the region to maintain pressure on Tehran.
In Beirut, there will be discussion of the continued disarmament of Hezbollah, provided for in the end-2024 ceasefire agreement concluded with Israel. The French minister will discuss the preparation of the conference in support of the Lebanese army and the internal security forces, scheduled for March 5 in Paris, the objective of which is to provide financial aid and equipment to strengthen them in their mission to disarm the movement.
With AFP
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