Syria and Iraq have agreed to resume easier cross-border trade and direct flights, Syrian media reported on Monday. Flights will re-start in early February.
Flight resumption first
"Baghdad is one of the important destinations for Syrian Air," the Director General of Syrian Air, Obaida Gebrael, was quoted as saying by SANA. "In light of the increasing demand and the economic feasibility, passenger flights will be operated to Baghdad through Damascus International Airport." According to Middle East Monitor, there will be two flights per week between Damascus and Baghdad on Sundays and Thursdays, starting from 2 February.
Trucks next
Moreover, both countries agreed to allow travellers and goods to enter through Al-Qaim border crossing. Lorries transporting goods through Al-Qaim from Syria will be able to enter Iraq if drivers have a multiple-entry visa, an Iraqi official told the New Arab. "The same will happen with vehicles going from Iraq to Syria, confirmed Suad Al-Amiri. Priority will be given to lorries transporting perishable products such as fruits and vegetables.
At the moment, products moving from Syria to Iraq are unloaded from Syrian trucks and reloaded onto Iraqi trucks at the border crossings before entering. The same process takes place in reverse for goods heading to Syria.
There are three border crossings between Syria and Iraq.
It would be great, if the weakening of the border regime will not affect ancient artifacts, as it was in 2014, when ISIS (prohibited in The Russian Federation), seized large territories in Iraq and Syria. Vestnik Kavkaza reported earlier that plundering and selling off antiquities has become one of the group's main funding sources. It reportedly established a division specifically responsible for looting antiquities that would eventually end up in Europe.
