Travellers arriving at Syria’s Nassib crossings with Jordan are now greeted by a sign apologising for construction work to upgrade the site. The suspicion that many faced under the ousted regime has been replaced by cordial treatment.
The rubbish that had engulfed the area, on the edge of the country’s southern Hauran Plain, has been cleared. Passenger traffic has been subdued since the wave of Syrian returnees last year, while cargo flows have increased sharply after most US sanctions were lifted on Syria at the end of 2025.
The lorries are mainly loaded with used cars, fuel, and cement for the Syrian market. However, the Iran war thrust Syria into the geopolitical limelight as a possible alternative to the maritime route from the Gulf and Europe through the Strait of Hormuz.
The strait is the scene of a continuing economic war between Iran and the US, which has affected supplies worldwide and forced countries to seek alternatives. “The potential is huge,” Rateb Al Hassan, owner of a Syrian transport company specialising in land-based container shipping in the Levant, told The National.
A regional push is under way to promote and develop transport links between Saudi Arabia and Turkey through Syria and Jordan. If the project goes forward, despite political and security issues, cargo would flow either by land directly to Europe, or to Syrian and Turkish ports, then onwards to Europe or elsewhere.
On April 7, Turkey, Jordan, and Syria agreed to develop a “north-south” transport corridor, with a modernised motorway system that will eventually be linked to the Saudi railway network. Riyadh announced that a feasibility study for the railway section will be completed by the end of 2026.
Damascus, meanwhile, started a technical assessment of the roads between Nassib and the Bab Al Hawa crossing with Turkey. No cost estimates have been announced, but the network is expected to take four to five years to build, Turkey's Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has said.
Syria's infrastructure and economy, hit by decades of mismanagement followed by the civil war from 2011 to 2024, are in dire need of investment. Transit fees could also become a source of hard currency for the cash-strapped government.
US-Israeli interests
The interests of Israel and the US are also at play, observers say. Washington has greatly influenced Syria’s post-Assad transformation, and Israel has long wanted its own port of Haifa on the Mediterranean to be used by Arab countries.
Both Israel and Turkey have troops in Syria, but with different goals and allies. For decades, Syria orbited Iran and Russia. In December 2024, formerly Al Qaeda-backed factions took over the country, ousting Bashar Al Assad and eventually aligning with the US.
It was a political earthquake that ushered in Syria’s re-entry into the world economy and accelerated an improvement in ties with most of the rest of the Arab Middle East.
Before 2011 and the start of the civil war, Syria served as a transit route for lorry traffic between Europe and the Gulf. Still, rampant corruption undermined these flows, Mr Al Hassan said.
“The cost in bribes to pass through Syria could sometimes equal the cost of shipping the container,” he said. During the civil war, some transit traffic was rerouted via longer routes through Iraq.
Waiel Olwan, head of research at Jusoor for Studies in Damascus, said that although the Iran war presents opportunities for Syria, Israel is “not absent from the scene and influences American policies” regarding support for the north-south corridor.
“The interests of Turkey and the Gulf countries are intersecting. Syria and Jordan are ready. But on the other bank of the Jordan River, there is Israel,” which wants to realise its “dream” of roads and pipelines from the Gulf to Haifa.
However, realising either of the two projects may still be far off. “The war has calmed down,” said Mr Olwan. “But it is not over.”
For the proposed north-south corridor to succeed, Mr Al Hassan said that trade barriers must fall. Syrian highways, and to a lesser degree Jordanian ones, must achieve international standards.
Security concerns prompted Jordan to restrict the entry of Syrian lorries during the civil war. Last February, Syria imposed stricter bans on Jordanian lorries, requiring they unload their cargo at Nassib upon crossing the border, so only Syrian lorries can take the cargo into Syria.
With funding and military support from the US, Jordan strengthened border security after Syria became a major source of narcotics, particularly the amphetamine Captagon, in 2018. However, smuggling has decreased since Assad was toppled.
The Captagon trade was a significant source of financing for Hezbollah and other pro-Iran militias, according to regional officials. Hezbollah has always denied involvement in the trade.
Building ties
Jordan and Syria never had close ties during the 54-year rule of the Assad family. In 2004, King Abdullah described Damascus as part of a “Shiite crescent” – an arc from Iraq to Lebanon that predominantly fell under Iranian control after the US-led ousting of Saddam Hussein.
In a gesture underscoring the newly high stakes, the king this month received a delegation of 15 Syrian ministers at a royal palace in Amman, after they signed multiple bilateral agreements with their Jordanian counterparts.
Ayman Al Safadi, the kingdom’s Foreign Minister, said solutions to the main issues between the two countries have been discussed. These include weapons and narcotics smuggling, water rights around a joint dam, and stability in the southern Syrian governorate of Sweida, where Israel intervened, claiming to be doing so to protect Druze rights in the country.
Jordan, Mr Al Safadi stated, is the link between Syria and Arabia; without co-operation, neither country can take advantage of its geographical position. A Jordanian source familiar with the country’s Syria policy said that the US is closely watching the development of Jordan–Syria relations as part of its conditional support for Syria’s recovery and reconstruction. The source added that any full US approval of Syria’s progress “will have components linked to Jordan”.
The transport corridor was discussed with the regional leaders during President Ahmad Al Shara's visit to several countries this week, said a Syrian official, who declined to elaborate. The talks also covered the role of the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah in Lebanon, he said. The group still holds an important role in the country's politics despite suffering setbacks in the last two years from Israel.
However, Lebanon, which has been hoping for a windfall from the Syrian reconstruction, has not been included in the proposed transport corridor. At the Antalya Forum last week, Mr Al Shara argued for investing in Syria by first highlighting progress in stabilising the country and eradicating the influence of Iran and its allies.
“Syria was the world's number one exporter of Captagon. This has reduced significantly,” Mr Al Shara said. The country “has become pivotal for the safety of the supply chains between east and west, but also the energy flows”, he added.
“Many countries are considering investing in Syria’s important location, a regional link, on the Mediterranean and exporting their goods, whether oil or non-oil, through Syrian territory,” Mr Al Shara said, giving a recent shipment of Iraqi fuel oil through the Syrian port of Tartus as an example.
The new government in Damascus remains pragmatic regarding business. Links are being forged with Iraq, despite the country being perceived as under the control of pro-Iranian militias, an ideology fought by Mr Al Shara.
