Jordan ‘temporarily’ closes its border crossing with Syria, Damascus holds Jordan accountable

On Wednesday, Jordan announced that they will temporarily close the Nasib Jaber strategic border crossing with Syria due to the violence taking place on the other side.

This was declared by the Jordanian Interior Minister, Hussein al-Majali, who informed Petra, the official Jordanian news agency.

Al-Majali revealed that Nasib Jaber border crossing has been temporarily closed ‘before the movement of passengers and freight.’

Al-Majali explained that this action comes ‘as a precautionary measure to preserve the lives and safety of passengers, due to the violence taking place on the other side of the borders, in the town of Nasib.’

For its part, the official Syrian news agency quoted an anonymous official source in the Syrian Foreign Ministry, as saying that his country holds the Jordanian authorities accountable for disabling the movement of vehicles and passengers, including disregarding the economic and social consequences of making such a decision.

Jordan and Syria are connected with two major crossings; Dara’a (Ramtha) and Nasib (Jaber), which is located only 2 kilometres away from the Dara’a crossing. The Syrian opposition fighters have been controlling Dara’a crossing for more than a year and are trying to control the Nasib Jaber crossing.

The length of the Jordanian-Syrian border is more than 375 km, with dozens of illegal crossings that were and are still entry points for the Syrian refugees to enter Jordanian soil.