Syrian flag flying again at frontier
Government forces return to nation’s border with Jordan
DARAA, Syria — The flag of the Syrian Arab Republic flies once again at the Nasib border crossing between Syria and Jordan, after an absence of three years.
The rebels’ red-white-black flag with three red stars in the middle used to be seen painted on roadblocks and walls at the border crossing.
But the symbol seems to have started fading away now that the only official border crossing between Syria and Jordan is back under government control.
The Syrian army reached Nasib on Friday for the first time after losing it to the rebels in 2015.
A large street sign written before the war reads “Welcome to the Syrian Arab Republic”.
During a trip to the crossing on Saturday, reporters saw Syrian soldiers manning checkpoints and posts in Nasib. They have only been there for a short time and the rebel flags have not yet been erased or removed, but the soldiers had raised Syrian flags over some parts of the crossing, covering the rebel ones.
At one checkpoint, a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had been placed above the rebel flag, as if the soldiers were declaring victory.
On another wall, Syrian soldiers put a military boot over the rebels’ flag, another message that the army has defeated the militants.
Other than the war of flags at the crossing, soldiers there seemed happy and relaxed, as the progress made in Daraa is of great importance to the Syrian government.
Daraa was the birthplace of the Syrian war, from which the crisis spread nationwide.
Russian soldiers were also seen at the crossing, as Moscow was the driving force behind the progress in Daraa, both militarily and politically.
A Syrian officer, who was among the troops that fought their way to the crossing, said on Saturday that the army had fully secured Nasib after defeating the rebels in nearby villages.
“The entire borderline with Jordan has been secured completely from Nasib in the southeast of Daraa to the desert region of the nearby Sweida province,” he said.
The crossing on Saturday seemed like a battlefield, with rubble and debris and badly damaged buildings.
Two explosions rocked the vicinity, reportedly the detonation of mines.
The Nasib crossing is considered one of the most important land crossings in the Middle East as it was the main crossing for Syrian exports to Jordan and the Gulf countries.
The crossing is important for Jordan now that the country is suffering from economic obstacles, which led to the eruption of protests in June, leading to the government’s sacking.
When Jordan closed the crossing after 2015, the kingdom suffered as 70 percent of the country’s exports and imports were through Syria, according to Nabil Ruman, head of the investor’s board of the Jordanian Free Zone.
Reports estimated the losses to the Jordanian transportation sector as a result of the border closure at around half a billion US dollars.
Expectations are high that both governments can work to reopen it on both sides despite the fact that the Syrian government blames Amman for supporting the ultraradical rebels in Daraa during the seven-year-long war in Syria.