After regaining control of the border crossings with Iraq in Deir al-Zour and Albou Kamal, the Syrian regime is preparing to resume customs operations at each of these two points and therefore facilitate linking them with land border points in Lebanon.
The regime's General Customs Department had already started exchanging goods at the beginning of the new year and a large number of customs personnel have been relocated there.
Movement is mainly between the customs of Deir al-Zour on Iraqi border and the customs of the al-Qusayr-Homs on the Lebanese border.
These border points link the trade road from Deir al-Zour to Sokhna and Palmyra, in the Syrian desert countryside, to the Homs countryside leading to al-Qusayr. The road also connects to Palmyra in Damascus and Homs leading to the Syrian coast.
Gaining control over this route is the most important military achievement of the regime and Iran during the six years of the war. It is also the most important trade route linking southern Iraq with the Syrian coast and northern Lebanon.
This means that a land route will open between Tehran, Syria and Lebanon via Iraq, especially since the Jousiyeh border crossing between Syria and Lebanon was reactivated in December 2017 for the first time in five years.
The crossing is located in al-Qusayr, Homs, west Syria, where Lebanon’s “Hezbollah” is active. Its reactivation will pave the way for the opening of the direct transit route between Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
