Al-Qaim closed in December
$1bn worth of trade in 2024
Open for freight and travellers
Iraq and Syria have reopened a major border crossing that was shut for security reasons six months ago.
Syria said on Saturday that it had reopened the Al-Qaim-Buakamal crossing and Iraq has confirmed the reopening. It was closed when rebel forces advanced in the area to topple former president Bashar Al-Assad.
In a statement on social media platform X, Syria’s General Authority for Land and Maritime Border Crossing announced that the crossing had resumed operation on June 14 for both travellers and freight trucks in both countries.
“The reopening of this crossing revives the eastern economic artery of the trade route between Syria and Iraq and strengthens overland connectivity along the Damascus-Bukamal-Qaim-Baghdad corridor,” Mazin Alloush, the Authority’s public relations director, told Iraq’s Shafaq news agency on Saturday.
In earlier statements, Syria’s economy and industry ministry said the reopening of the crossing is “more than just the passage of trucks but marks the beginning of a new economic vision between Syria and Iraq”.
Al-Qaim border crossing, nearly 340km from Iraq’s capital Baghdad and 450km from Syria’s capital Damascus, has been a major supply route between the two neighbours.
In September 2019, Iraq reopened the crossing after eight years of closure due to Syrian civil strife and internal hostilities in Iraq. It was shut again in December 2024.
Figures from the Iraq-Syria business council show the crossing, which connects Syria to Iraq’s largest governorate of Alanbar, handled over $1 billion worth of goods in 2024.
“Both countries will largely benefit from the reopening of Al-Qaim crossing,” said Nabil Al-Marsoumi, an economics professor at Basra University in South Iraq.
“Iraq will boost exports to Syria and take advantage of the reconstruction projects there. In turn, the reopening will help Syria increase its exports and get supplies needed for reconstruction as Iraq is a major market for Turkey and Iraq and can act as a transit route for Syria’s needs,” he told AGBI.
