Syria’s border with Jordan has long reflected the state of relations between the two neighbors. The border itself, delineated by France and Britain in October 1931, was tightly enforced only from 1970 onward, after the Black September crisis, when Syrian tanks entered Jordan in support of Palestinian militant organizations.
Since that time, Syria has opened and closed the Nassib-Jaber crossing—the main crossing point between the two countries—several times depending on the political relations between Amman and Damascus. The first decade of the century was something of a golden age for bilateral relations. Syria and Jordan cooperated on many fronts, especially in trade, which reached $674 million in 2007, up 166 percent from 2003. This can be seen in figures released by Jordan’s Department of Statistics, which provides the most detailed and up-to-date figures on the Jordanian economy, converted from Jordanian dinars to U.S. dollars at a rate of $1.41 per dinar. At the time, relations were such that Syria even sought to open a new crossing through Suwayda, alongside Nassib-Jaber and the crossing between Daraa and Ramtha.