Syria’s new HTS rulers take over border crossings with Jordan and Lebanon

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham emerged as the dominant force in Syria after leading a rebel overthrow of the Assad regime

Vehicles wait to enter Syria from Jordan through the Nasib border crossing into the southern Syrian province of Deraa in November 2018. AFP

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The extremist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), which led the rebel advance that deposed Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad, has established military control over the main border crossings with Jordan and Lebanon as it consolidates control in Syria, witnesses and rebel commanders told The National on Sunday.

Restoration of normal traffic through the crossings would boost the battered Syrian economy and provide hard currency for the country's next government. Syria was a main land link between the Arabian Peninsula and Europe before the civil war that began in 2011. It was also the conduit for the bulk of Lebanese exports to the Gulf region.

HTS, which is led by Ahmad Al Shara and was formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda, deployed troops and armoured vehicles at the Nasib border crossing into Jordan on Saturday and flew drones over the area after telling smaller rebel factions to move aside, sources said.

A rebel commander at the crossing, who identified himself as Abu Omeir, said the group’s aim is to streamline the crossing to encourage the Jordanian side to allow free access from the kingdom. Jordanian authorities currently only allow Syrians wishing to leave the kingdom to pass through the crossing, as well as some lorries.

“We have managed to bring back some old staff and will adopt the old border procedures for now,” the commander said.

The rapid rise of HTS as Syria’s de facto new rulers after the overthrow of Mr Al Assad on December 8 ended five decades of Iran-backed rule by the former president's family. Very few countries in the region trusted the largely secular regime dominated by the Alawite minority to which the Assad family belongs, but it was seen as a more known quantity than Sunni militant opposition groups such as HTS.

Mr Al Shara, however, has signalled that his priority is to build a new state, moving away from the extremist ideology of groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS.

The HTS deployment at the Nasib crossing prompted increased Jordanian reconnaissance, with fighter jets from the kingdom's air force flying over the area.

Jordan is one of eight Arab countries that said on Saturday that any support for the new order in Syria hinged on the country not becoming a base for terrorism, a position previously declared by the United States.

Abu Omeir, the HTS commander, said the purpose of the group’s deployment on the border was to prevent smuggling. The area was the main conduit for the trafficking of the amphetamine Captagon from Syria to the Arabian Peninsula through Jordan. The illicit trade was controlled by the Syrian army and militia proxies of Iran during Mr Al Assad's rule.

HTS forces spread to other areas of the frontier but stayed away from a US base in the border area of Tanf to the east.

The group’s personnel also deployed at the Jdeideh crossing into Lebanon, according to a traveller who passed through on Sunday.

“They are running the post now,” they said.

HTS have also bolstered their positions along the Anti-Lebanon mountain range separating Syria from Lebanon. The group had swept through the Syrian side of the mountains before capturing Damascus.

Military pressure by HTS last week forced the mostly Kurdish SDF militia to relinquish swathes of territory in eastern Syria.

Only Kurdish-run areas in the eastern governorates of Hasakah and Raqqa, as well as ISIS pockets in Syria's central desert region, remain outside the control of HTS or militias of the allied Syrian National Army backed by Turkey.