A protectionist measure by Syria to revive its overland transport sector is delaying cargo traffic through border crossings and has increased the cost of imports, shippers say.
The ban on the entry of goods lorries from neighbouring countries comes as Damascus seeks to end years of business isolation under the regime of former president Bashar Al Assad.
Exports to Syria rose sharply after the US began lifting sanctions on the country in the middle of last year, particularly from Turkey, the main regional backer of Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara. However, a decree on February 6 banned lorries from Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon from entering Syria to deliver their cargo. They are now required to transfer the goods on to Syrian lorries at the border crossings, which shippers say are not equipped to handle the change.
The decree was issued following protests and attacks on foreign drivers by Syrian drivers, who have been mostly without work since 2011, the year Syria's civil war began, shippers and drivers said. Drivers from Jordan, as well as from the Indian subcontinent working for Gulf companies, were among those beaten.
“We want to feed our children like you feed your children,” said a Syrian member of a regional WhatsApp group for lorry drivers, who goes by the name of Abu Zahed.
Lorries carrying goods from Jordan to Syria now have to wait for days at Jaber-Nassib, the only crossing between the two countries, before they can offload their cargo on to Syrian hauliers. Delays are also occurring at crossings with Turkey and at the main Masnaa-Jdaidt Artouz crossing with Lebanon.
The measure has doubled the cost of transporting cargo from Jordan, and raised it by 50 to 70 per cent for shipments from Turkey and Lebanon, with delays of up to two weeks, the sources said.
Cargo traffic between Syria and Iraq has been minimal since the Iran-backed Assad regime collapsed in December 2024.
Turkey has banned Syrian lorries from entering for the past decade on safety grounds. Jordan officially allows Syrian lorries to enter, but drivers said many do not do so because of security concerns relating to the smuggling of Captagon.
A Jordanian business delegation visited Damascus last week to discuss the issue. Among them was Daifallah Abu Aqoula, head of the Jordanian Association of Owners of Cargo Shipment and Clearance Companies. Mr Abu Aqoula told The National that Syrian officials had dug in their heels and gave little indication that the ban would be rescinded. However, he said, exclusions might be made for refrigerated and other perishable cargoes.
Mr Abu Aqoula said the border crossings with Syria were mostly designed for the free flow of goods, and not the new “back-to-back” arrangement, which has contributed to the delays.
Most Syrian transport vehicles are 30 to 40 years old, he said, and many of their drivers work independently of registered companies, raising the risk of cargo disappearing.
“Sometimes, there is valuable cargo worth several million dollars in one container, making it difficult to trust it to a driver who works on his own,” he said.
Mr Abu Aqoula said the ban has affected not only exports from Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon but also from the Gulf, with 150 lorries carrying cargo from Gulf countries leaving Jordan's Aqaba port for Syria each day. The cost of transporting one container across Jordan's border into Syria has now risen by $1,000, he said.
The latest official data show that trade between Syria and Jordan almost doubled to $432 million in the first 11 months of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year. Jordanian exports to Syria accounted for 66 per cent of the trade volume
Mazen Alloush, public relations director at Syria's Crossings and Customs Council, said the measure has been “met with relief” because it prompted “activation of the Syrian transport fleet”. Lorry operators in neighbouring countries were “not the target”, he said.
Tony Assaf, director of Lebanon's Land Transport Administration, told The National that “there is a natural amount of congestion” since lorries have to stop, unload, and then reload. A taxi driver who travelled the Lebanon-Syria route on Tuesday said he saw dozens of lorries lined up on the Syrian side of the Masnaa-Jdaidt Artouz crossing, hindering passenger traffic. However, political differences damaged trade between Syria and Lebanon before the ban, so the transport of goods across their border was minimal compared with Jordan, and far less than with Turkey.
Turkish exports to Syria rose by 70 per cent to $2.5 billion in 2025 compared to the previous year. Official data on Syria's global imports are patchy, but the volume is estimated to have increased many times over compared with the $6.4 billion recorded in 2024. Syria's total exports rose 39 per cent to $580 million in the first half of 2025, compared with the same period the previous year.
Omer Yildirim, chairman of the board of the Chamber of Trade and Commerce in Cizre, a Turkish district on the border with Syria, said congestion at the border crossings with Turkey was caused by a lack of suitable Syrian lorries to pick up goods on the other side.
The new regulations raised the risk of damage to cargo and lorries during the transfers, Mr Yildirim said.
Syrian vehicles are “very old”, and damage roads because they often carry more than their permitted tonnage, “posing a danger to human and traffic safety”, he said.
