French President Emmanuel Macron said he would pursue the progressive lifting of European Union sanctions against Syria if Syria stuck to its current path, and added he would lobby the United States to also follow suit in this regard.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will visit Paris on Wednesday, his first trip to Europe since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December, as he seeks international support for his efforts to bring greater stability to his war-shattered country.

The visit comes amid renewed sectarian bloodshed, coming a week after clashes between forces loyal to al-Sharaa and fighters from the minority Druze sect that left nearly 100 peop