Islam Times - Iraq-Jordan Main Border Crossing Opens after 2 Years

Islam Times - Jordan-Iraq main border crossing is set to be reopened on Wednesday for the first time since 2015, in the wake of Iraqi forces success in establishing control over the main highway to Baghdad.

Iraqi troops pulled out of the Tureibil post, on the 180 km border, in summer 2014 after ISIS terrorists captured nearly all the official crossings of the western frontier as they swept through a third of the country.

Reuters cited the Iraqi and Jordanian governments as saying in a joint statement that Tureibil would open on Wednesday after the road was secured “from attacks and criminal gangs.”

Officials have said that customs and border arrangements have been finalized, with security measures in place to ensure the 550 km highway from the border to Baghdad was safe.

“The opening of the crossing is of great importance to Jordan and Iraq ... It’s a crucial artery. Jordan and Iraq have been discussing reopening it for a while,” Interior Minister Ghaleb al Zubi said last week.

Several trade and business officials had said they had been invited to an event on Wednesday to mark the re-opening that would include senior Jordanian and Iraqi officials.

Since last year, the Iraqi army has regained most of Anbar province’s main towns that fell to the ISIS terrorist group in 2014.

The vast desert province is an historic hotbed of extremism sparked by 2003’s US-led invasion of Iraq.

Iraq has also been working on securing the highway that connects Iraq’s Basra port in the south to Jordan, where the Red Sea port of Aqaba has long served as a gateway for Iraqi imports coming from Europe.