TREBIL BORDER CROSSING, Iraq (AP) – Jordan and Iraq reopened their only border crossing Wednesday after a two-year closure, taking a step toward stabilizing an area devastated by Islamic State extremists and allowing for a resumption of vital trade.
Iraqi and Jordanian officials celebrated the reopening as another victory over the militant group, which has been pushed back by U.S-backed military offensives in northern and western Iraq over the past year.
Ending the closure “means we have told the world we are greater … than any terrorist group,” Iraq’s interior minister, Qassim al-Araji, said in a ceremony on the Jordanian side of the border post.
Reviving cross-border traffic could help bring normalcy back to Iraq’s Anbar border province after years of heavy fighting to drive IS militants from its towns and cities. It would also give a boost to Jordan’s sluggish economy. Iraq is a key market for Jordan, and exports dropped by more than two-thirds after the 2015 closure.
Jordanian and Iraqi officials did not set a firm date for the resumption of truck and passenger traffic across the border post, known in Jordan as Karameh and in Iraq as Trebil. The crossing sits along a 900-kilometer (560-mile) trade route linking Jordan’s capital, Amman, and Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.