Damascus reopens key crossings with Jordan, annexed Golan

Closed for years due to the civil war, Syria yesterday reopened a vital border post with Jordan as well as a crossing into the Israelicontrolled Golan, as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime bolsters its control after sweeping advances against rebels.

Two white jeeps crossed into Israeli-controlled territory during a low-key ceremony to mark the reopening of the Quneitra crossing in the Golan Heights, four years after it was closed when Syrian rebels seized nearby territory.

Dozens of kilometres to the south and three years after it too was closed, a black metal border gate opened at the Nassib crossing into Jordan as police and customs officials stood nearby.

The Jordan crossing was previously a major trading route, while the remote Quneitra post is used primarily by a United Nations force which monitors a ceasefire line separating Israeli-occupied parts of the Golan Heights from Syria.

Their reopening were indications of a clear trend in Syria’s civil war, with Assad’s government — backed by Russian and Iranian military support — taking back huge swathes of land in the past year.

Also yesterday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said after talks in Damascus with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim Jaafari that the country’s Albu Kamal border post with Iraq would also reopen “as soon as possible”. Even though Syria’s government still controls only around half of the border crossings with its neighbours, Assad’s forces have made major advances near Jordan and seized almost the entire province of Quneitra this summer.

Syrian businessman Hisham Falyoun, who lives in Jordan with his wife and children, was the first person to cross the border in his black Mercedes jeep. “I wanted to be the first person to cross to show everyone that Syria is safe, Syria is back,” said Falyoun, who was hoping to surprise his parents in Damascus.

The border crossing, known as Jaber on the Jordanian side and Nassib on the Syrian side, was a key trade route before Amman closed it after the post was overrun by rebels in April 2015.

In Quneitra, the reopening was the result of a deal between Israel, Syria and the United Nations.

It will allow forces from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has around 1,000 troops, to patrol the area of the crossing, after withdrawing in 2014 when Al-Qaeda-linked rebels overran the area. Israel seized control of much of the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war and later annexed it, in moves never recognised by the international community.