A key border crossing between Iraq and Syria reopened Monday for the first time in more than a decade, with officials highlighting its potential to revive trade and provide an overland route for oil exports amid disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
The crossing - known as Rabia in Iraq and Yarubiyah in Syria - was closed after the Syrian civil war began in 2011. Then in 2014, the Daesh terrorist group seized the area. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces later retook it.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said that Syrian and Iraqi officials at the crossing discussed how to improve coordination and ease transit and trade "in line with shared interests.”
Nadia al-Jubouri, a member of Iraq's provincial council of Nineveh, said at the ceremony that the reopening will allow for "trade exchange and oil transportation toward this great gate.”
Still, transporting oil over land is far inferior in capacity to pipelines and oil tankers at sea.
Iraq relies heavily on oil revenues for roughly 90% of its budget, and most of its oil is exported through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf and a critical chokepoint through which 20% of the world’s oil normally flows.
