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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 16 OcTOber 2018

Syria reopens vital crossing with Jordan, UN post with Golan

By ALBERT AJI Heights, setting up check-
OMAR AKOUR points in the area. Moscow
Associated Press said it planned to work
QUNEITRA, Syria (AP) — closely with the U.N. force.
President Bashar Assad’s On Monday, Russian offi-
government received a cers were on the scene.
major boost Monday as Syr- The opening of the crossing
ia’s commercial gateway is a “signal of the return of
with Jordan and a crossing stability to Syria and the fail-
with the Israeli-occupied ure of the efforts to divide
Golan Heights manned by the country,” said Syrian
U.N peacekeepers were re- army Brig. Mazen Younes.
opened years after the war The commercial crossing
disrupted their operations. with Jordan promises to
The simultaneous reopen- restore millions of dollars’
ing of the crossings was worth of trade. Syrian veg-
celebrated on state media etables and fruits will find
with back-to-back cover- their way to the Gulf, Turkey
age, reinforcing the gov- and Arab markets more
ernment’s narrative that it is easily, and construction
slowly emerging victorious and raw materials will find a
from the seven-year war. faster route into Syrian cities
“We are now witnessing the and towns devastated by
early fruits of victory,” Syr- the war.
ian Foreign Minister Walid Once one of Syria’s busiest,
al-Moallem said at a press Jordanian cars prepare to cross into Syria, at the Jordanian-Syrian border Jaber crossing point, in the Naseeb crossing was
conference in Damascus. Mafraq, Jordan, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. closed in 2015 when it fell
Sitting next to his Iraqi coun- Associated Press to rebel hands, disrupting a
terpart, who was visiting on League froze Syria’s mem- economy is connected to The Druze community was major trade route between
Monday, al-Moallem said bership shortly after the war the Syrian economy,” said divided when Israel occu- Syria and Jordan, Lebanon
the two countries are dis- began, imposing sanctions Abdel-Salam Theyabat, pied the Golan Heights in and oil-rich Gulf countries.
cussing reopening a border the cutting diplomatic ties. the head of a Jordanian 1967. U.N. observers had Before the war, an aver-
crossing. Commercial delegations chamber of commerce. monitored the frontier since age of 7,000 trucks went
“No one should isolate converged on the Nas- At the Quneitra border the 1974 cease-fire deal, through daily, according to
Syria,” Ibrahim al-Jaafari, eeb crossing with Jordan crossing, leaders of the Dru- but left their posts in 2014 some estimates. Lebanon’s
Iraq’s foreign minister, said, on Monday, and mem- ze community, which strad- as fighting between Syr- President Michel Aoun has
adding that he was advo- bers of the Syrian chamber dles the frontier, were first ian rebels and government praised the agreement be-
cating for Syria’s return to of commerce went into on the scene to attend the forces approached. tween Jordan and Syria to
the Arab League. Jordan to meet with their flag-raising ceremony. A Syrian forces recaptured open a main border cross-
Assad’s government has counterparts. The first truck plaque announcing the re- the Quneitra area in July. ing between the two coun-
been largely isolated by carrying citrus fruits entered activation of the crossing Russian military police de- tries, saying it will benefit
its Arab neighbors since Jordan, and dozens of pri- was signed off with “Mercy ployed in the area, includ- the country whose imports
the civil war broke out in vate cars drove into Syria. to the martyrs and to Syria ing on the edge of the to the Gulf had been hit by
2011. The 22-member Arab “We are brothers. Our victory and peace.” Israeli-occupied Golan the closure.q