The French leader has told the Syrian press he wants a “break with the past”. That’s to say engaging Damascus instead of isolating it like his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

But French policy on Syria has never been all-or-nothing. Chirac cultivated Bashar al-Assad’s father when the latter was in power; Chirac believed Syria had an important role to play in the Middle East. And Sarkozy himself broke off contacts with the current Syrian president last winter because of a lack of progress on Lebanon.

So France has usually been pragmatic towards Syria and it now sees an opening thanks to Lebanese-Syrian rapprochement and uncertainty over what the next US president will do. That, however, doesn’t make Sarkozy’s visit a gimmick of French diplomacy. Relations within the Middle East are subtly shifting. Tomorrow Syria hosts a four-way summit with Turkey, Qatar and France. Ostensibly this is about resolving Syria’s conflict with Israel over the Golan Heights. But a peace deal is a long way off. For now, Damascus is using the forum to forge new partnerships, to shore up its standing and eventually present itself as a country that the US can and should do business with.