Although the Jaber crossing has been open since 2018 after the Syrian government drove rebels from southern Syria, trade has yet to recover to the $1 billion pre-war level. The pandemic led to measures to try to curb transmission of the coronavirus and those restrictions will be lifted from Wednesday, officials told Reuters. Interior Minister Mazen Faraya said restrictions on Syrian transit cargo to Gulf markets and Iraq through Jordan will also be lifted, which Damascus has been pushing for. Transit cargo from the Gulf will also be allowed from Jordan to Syria along with unrestricted passenger traffic, Faraya told Jordan's Al-Mamlaka public broadcaster. Syria’s only normally operating frontier crossing has been with Lebanon, and in recent years Iraq after the reopening of the Qaim crossing in 2019.
