Syrian truce relieves pressure on Jordan’s border

Nassib border crossing between Syria and Jordan

Osama Al Sharif writes if Al Monitor, “Jordan is welcoming the news that the Syrian army took control of the Nassib border crossing July 7, weeks after Syria and Russia launched a joint offensive to recapture the southern Syrian province of Daraa from rebel groups. On July 8, The Jordan Times quoted a top military commander as saying the Syrian army’s success in regaining control of the crossing is a “positive development” for Jordan’s national security. Jordanian Brig. Gen. Khaled Massaid, the commander of the northern military region, told the paper that Syria is now in full control of its side of the Jaber/Nassib border crossing, after the Jordanian Armed Forces did its part while the border outpost was in the hands of’ ‘terrorist organizations’….

“On July 5, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said there were 60,000 displaced Syrians at the Jordanian border. But according to Jordan, by July 8, after the truce, there were only 8,000 left at the borders. Massaid said on July 8 that “90% of the Syrians stranded on the border have returned to their homes.”…

” Hassan al-Barrari, an international relations professor at the University of Jordan, told Al-Monitor that Jordan could do little to avert what was inevitable in Daraa and that the Syrian army’s deployment in southern Syria had come as a result of an agreement between Russia, the United States and Israel. ‘That deal allows [for Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad to stay in power [at least temporarily] in return for limiting Iranian presence in Syria, which Russia will guarantee,’ Barrari said. ‘

The deployment serves Jordan’s interests as well and moves the fighting to Idlib in the north,” he added.” (more…)