DAMASCUS, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Nasib-Jaber border crossing between Syria and Jordan reopened on Wednesday after months of closure caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the security situation in the border regions amid efforts by both countries to re-establish normal relations and boost economic cooperation.

According to Syria's state-run SANA news agency, the reopening of the crossing aims to activate the trade and tourism movement through the vital and only official crossing between the two countries.

The crossing should have been reopened in August, while the security situation in the border city Daraa delayed it to September, SANA cited Mazen Ghandour, head of the Immigration Center in Nasib, as saying.

Daraa has witnessed an escalation of tension between the Syrian army and local armed men for more than three months. Recently, parts of the armed men were evacuated to rebel-held areas in northern Syria and parts accepted to reconcile with the government under a Russian-mediated deal.

The reopening comes at a time when the relations between Syria and Jordan are under the spotlight, with the two sides devoted to re-establishing ties, mainly the economic one.

In tandem with the reopening of the land crossing, Jordan and Syria also agreed that the Royal Jordanian Airlines would resume its flights between Amman and Damascus as of Oct. 3.

On Sept. 19, Syria's Defense Minister and Chief of Staff Ali Ayyoub visited Jordan and met with Jordanian army head Lieutenant General Yousef Hunaiti to discuss stability on the Syrian-Jordanian border.

The visit was the first of its kind since the Syrian war began more than 10 years ago, and marked a shift in the course of bilateral ties given the fact that during the Syrian crisis, Jordan emerged as a backer of the Western-backed rebel groups in southern Syria.

The visit of the Syrian official to Amman also came just days after Syria agreed on a U.S.-backed plan to allow Egyptian gas to pass from Jordan to Syria and Lebanon to ease the energy crisis in Lebanon.

In turn, Syria's Oil Minister Bassam Tohme announced on Sept. 11 that his country will be taking a certain amount of Egypt's gas as part of the agreement to facilitate the flow of gas from Egypt to Lebanon through Syria.

The gas will be pumped through the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), a 1,200 km-long trans-regional gas export pipeline built to carry natural gas from Egypt to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Also, a Jordanian-Syrian agreement was recently reached to reactivate an agreement signed in 1987 to maximize the utilization of the waters of the Yarmouk Basin in Syria's Daraa province near the Jordanian territories.

Moreover, the Syrian ministers of water resources, agriculture, electricity, and economy visited Jordan on Monday and held meetings with their Jordanian counterparts to discuss cooperative initiatives now as the Jaber-Nassib crossing has reopened.

The border crossing was closed in 2015 when the rebels took over the Nasib area. Before the crisis, the Nasib crossing was the busiest border crossing in Syria as it is situated on the Damascus-Amman international highway.

The crossing is considered one of the most important land crossings in the Middle East as it was the main crossing for Syrian exports to Jordan and the Gulf countries.

The crossing is also important for Jordan, which is suffering from economic problems as it facilitates the export of Jordanian goods to Turkey, Lebanon, and Europe, while imports from those countries, as well as Syria, enter Jordan through it. Enditem

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