BEIRUT: Lebanon and Jordan are seeking a solution with Syria after the latter barred foreign trucks from entering its territory, officials from both countries told AFP on Tuesday.
Damascus had issued a decision on Saturday stipulating that “non-Syrian trucks will not be allowed to enter” the country, and that goods being imported by road must be unloaded at specific points at border crossings.
The decision exempts trucks that are only passing through Syria to other countries.
Dozens of trucks unable to enter the country were lined up on the Lebanese side of the Masnaa border crossing on Tuesday, an AFP photographer saw.
Ahmad Tamer, head of land and maritime transportation at the Lebanese transport ministry told AFP that discussions were underway with Damascus over the decision.
He said the issue was not specifically targeting Lebanon — which is trying to reset ties with Damascus after the fall of Bashar Assad — adding that he hoped to hold a meeting with the Syrian side soon.
Lebanon sends around 500 trucks to Syria per day, according to Tamer.
In Jordan, also affected by the decision, transport ministry spokesperson Mohammed Al-Dweiri told AFP that “discussions are currently underway, and we are awaiting a response from the Syrian side regarding allowing foreign trucks to enter and cross.”
Dweiri said that Jordanian trucks were continuing to unload their cargo at the free zone at the Nassib border crossing with Syria despite some “confusion.”
Around 250 Jordanian trucks travel to Syria daily, according to him.
A source in the Syrian General Authority for Ports and Customs told AFP that the decision aimed to “regulate the movement of cargo through the ports.”
Representatives of unions and associations in Lebanon’s transport sector denounced the decision on Tuesday and warning of “negative repercussions,” according to the state-run National News Agency.
Syria is the only land route Lebanon can use to export merchandise to wealthy Gulf markets.
As part of continued attempts to rekindle ties, the two countries signed an agreement on Friday to hand around 300 Syrian convicts over to Damascus.
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Lebanon, Jordan seek solutions after Damascus bans non-Syrian trucks
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Lebanon, Jordan seek solutions after Damascus bans non-Syrian trucks
- Lebanon and Jordan are seeking a solution with Syria after the latter barred foreign trucks from entering its territory, officials from both countries told AFP on Tuesday.
Iraq: Ankara agrees to take back Turkish citizens among Daesh detainees transferred from Syria
Iraq’s foreign minister said on Monday Turkiye had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of Islamic State detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.
Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.
Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq was in talks with other countries on the repatriation of their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Turkiye.
In a separate statement to the UN Human Rights Council, Hussein said: “We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who’ve been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried in their countries of origin.”
The fate of the suspected Islamic State fighters, as well as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State held swathes of Syria and Iraq in a self-proclaimed caliphate, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.
Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.
Baghdad has said it will try suspects on terrorism charges in its own legal system, but it has also repeatedly called on other countries to take back their citizens from among the detainees.
Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein told US envoy Tom Barrack in a meeting that Iraq was in talks with other countries on the repatriation of their nationals, and had reached an agreement with Turkiye.
In a separate statement to the UN Human Rights Council, Hussein said: “We would call the states across the world to recover their citizens who’ve been involved in terrorist acts so that they be tried in their countries of origin.”
The fate of the suspected Islamic State fighters, as well as thousands of women and children associated with the group, has become an urgent issue since the Kurdish force guarding them collapsed in the face of a Syrian government offensive.
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, Islamic State held swathes of Syria and Iraq in a self-proclaimed caliphate, ruling over millions of people and attracting fighters from other countries. Its rule collapsed after military campaigns by regional governments and a US-led coalition.
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