The Lebanese delegation at the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing in northern Lebanon, in preparation for a meeting with the Syrian side regarding the ban on Lebanese trucks in Syria. (Credit: Sarah Abdallah)
A Lebanese-Syrian meeting was held Wednesday at the Jdeidet Yabous border crossing in northern Lebanon to discuss the regulation of Lebanese trucks entering Syrian territory, our correspondents reported.
On the Lebanese side, Ahmad Tamer, director of land and maritime transport at th Public Works and Transport Ministry, represented Minister Fayez Rassamny, accompanied by members of transport unions. The Syrian delegation represented the Syrian Transport Ministry.
An official statement from the Lebanese Transport Ministry was expected but was ultimately not released.
The Masnaa border crossing, at the border with Syria via the Bekaa, had been closed to Lebanese truck traffic overnight from Monday to Tuesday and throughout Tuesday, after Syrian customs banned non-Syrian trucks from entering the country by land.
Under this policy, Syrian authorities require shipments to be unloaded at Jdeidet Yabous, in the north, to be transferred to Syrian trucks.
For Lebanese trucks transporting goods, especially agricultural products, to the Gulf, Syria is an essential transit point, as it is the only open border, given the ongoing state of war with Israel.
The repercussions for agriculture and agricultural exports are therefore considerable.
This morning's meeting at Jdeidet Yabous between both parties aims to discuss the repercussions of this "organizational" decision on the activity of Lebanese trucks, our correspondent notes.
Around 100 Lebanese trucks per day in Syria
The president of the National Farmers Union, Ibrahim Tarshishi, described this decision as "arbitrary and unstudied."
"Even on the Syrian side, preparations are necessary to unload Lebanese trucks’ cargo into Syrian trucks," he told L'Orient-Le Jour.
According to him, about 20 Syrian trucks enter Lebanon daily, compared with about 100 Lebanese trucks crossing into Syria.
He believed that the Syrian authorities "expected this unjust decision to go unnoticed by Lebanon," which was not the case this time.
"Transport Minister Fayez Rassamny took a firm stance in favor of reciprocal measures between the two countries, even though Lebanon generally avoids such extremes," the farmer continued, estimating that this position forced the hand of the Syrian transport minister and led to Wednesday's meeting at Jdeidet Yabous.
For his part, Ziad Saadeh, president of the Association of Merchants of Zahle, the capital of the Bekaa, said that "such decisions have direct repercussions on the transport sector, as well as on the industrial and agricultural sectors, but in the longer term, the entire economy would suffer, especially trade."
He told L'Orient-Le Jour that merchants "are demanding permanent and lasting solutions for exchanges between the two countries, particularly by easing the passage of trucks — especially those transiting through Syria, since the border with that country is the only land route open to Lebanese citizens."
Reporting by our regional correspondents, Michel Hallak in North Lebanon and Sarah Abdallah in the Bekaa.
