BAGHDAD: Jordan’s overland trade has largely been paralyzed by recent border attacks from insurgents in neighboring Syria and Iraq, a spillover of regional turmoil threatening a close Western ally that has thus far succeeded in fending off Islamic militants.
The violence has forced the closure of the only Syria-Jordan trade crossing and further disrupted already sharply diminished cargo shipments between Jordan and Iraq. Thousands of trucks sit idle, traders are scrambling for new transport routes and the government says Jordan’s economy is losing tens of millions of dollars a month.
“Iraq is closed, Syria is closed, only the (route to the) Gulf is left,” said truck driver Firas Zoabi, who has lost most of his business in recent weeks because of blocked or treacherous crossings.
The border disruptions are the latest setback for Jordan since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 — and particularly since Islamic State militants seized large areas of Syria and Iraq last year. Unemployment and the cost of living are up, driven in part by the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria’s civil war, while tourism, direct foreign investment and trade have dropped.
Jordan’s exports decreased nearly 17 percent in the first two months of this year, compared to the same period in 2014 — and that was before the most recent troubles.
A month ago, Jordan closed its only working border crossing with Syria after rebels fighting President Bashar Assad captured the Syrian side of the border point from pro-Assad forces. Last weekend, Islamic State militants set off three suicide car bombs on the Iraqi side of the only truck crossing with Jordan, killing four Iraqi troops and causing major disruptions.
The loss of trade routes is hurting Jordan’s farmers and manufacturers. “Both Syria and Iraq are major export markets for Jordan, so definitely the closure of the borders would have an impact on our industry,” Trade Minister Maha Ali said in an interview.
The economic fallout was apparent this week at the Syrian-Jordanian crossing, known to Syrians as Nasib and to Jordanians as Jaber. A free trade zone next to the crossing has been closed amid reports of widespread looting by Syrian rebels.
Until recently, the zone had been a bustling area of warehouses and factories that employed several thousand Jordanians, said Nabil Roman, head of the investors’ association for such zones in Jordan. Since the rebel takeover, investors have pulled out.
Roman said the zone was doing business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. “It’s gone,” he said.
This week, trucks transported goods and raw materials out of the zone as entrepreneurs tried to salvage their inventory.
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