With Assad in Control, Syria Reopens Trade Link to Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan — The Syrian government celebrated the reopening Monday of a vital border crossing with Jordan as a new sign of President Bashar Assad’s reestablished control over much of the country and of progress in his efforts to normalize relations with other Arab states.

The civil war that has torn apart Syria since 2011 has ravaged the country’s economy and severed many of its regional relationships, and Assad, along with his Russian and Iranian allies, is now hoping that he can undo the damage.

The Nasib border crossing, along Syria’s southern border with Jordan, was closed for three years because the territory on the Syrian side was controlled by a mix of armed rebels and jihadi fighters. The Syrian government seized the area this summer with the help of Russian airstrikes, allowing the crossing to reopen.

The Nasib crossing is a vital economic artery for the two countries, and its opening allows Syria to export produce and other goods to Jordan and send it on to other Arab countries.

The economic activity also provides a source of employment for many drivers and merchants on the Jordanian side, and Lebanon, Syria’s neighbor to the west, also stands to benefit from the export route.

Cars and trucks carrying passengers and merchants began crossing after the border was opened Monday morning.

Syrian officials clearly saw the opening as the start of a wider normalization with other Arab states after seven years of civil war that left the country diplomatically isolated.

Speaking alongside his Iraqi counterpart in Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem of Syria expressed hopes that his country’s Albu Kamal crossing with Iraq would open soon, too.

“The general mutual interest that these crossings create between the people is what lasts, and therefore we look at this broadly,” he said.

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Iraqi foreign minister, offered an encouraging response, talking of improving relations with Syria and reintegrating it into the Arab world.

“No one can marginalize Syria, and I raised the necessity of its return to the Arab League,” he said.

The 22-member Arab League froze Syria’s membership after the civil war broke out, largely because of widespread disgust for the intensity with which Assad sought to crush the uprising against his rule.

Many Arab states remain deeply hostile to Assad’s government, and it remains unclear when Syria might be readmitted as a member.

The developments on the Nasib crossing coincided with a decision by the Israeli army Monday to reopen the Quneitra crossing between the Syrian- and Israeli-controlled portions of the Golan Heights, a formal recognition by one of Assad’s foes that his grip on southern Syria was secure.

The crossing was first established at the end of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force was established to carry out the cease-fire between Israel and Syria, creating a demilitarized zone.

The crossing allowed U.N. troops to move freely between the territories controlled by the two countries.

While no major trade passed through the crossing between the two states, which remain enemies, it did allow for members of the local Druze population, who live on both sides of the dividing line, to visit relatives — the subject of the 2004 film “The Syrian Bride.”

The crossing was closed in 2014 after attacks by Syrian rebels and jihadis, who at various points captured dozens of U.N. peacekeepers. But U.N. troops have gradually returned to the Israel-Syria border in recent months. The crossing is being reopened only for those forces, the Israeli army said.