Iraq-Syria border crossing reopens for first time in over a decade

A cardinal borderline crossing betwixt Iraq and Syria reopened connected Monday (April 20, 2026) for the archetypal clip successful much than a decade, with officials highlighting its imaginable for commercialized and lipid exports. Syria touted the crossing arsenic a harmless overland way for lipid exports and an alternate to the Strait of Hormuz astatine the absorption of the Iran war.

The crossing — known arsenic Rabia successful Iraq and Yarubiyah successful Syria — was closed aft the Syrian civilian warfare began successful 2011. Then successful 2014, militants from the Islamic State radical seized the area. Iraqi Kurdish forces aboriginal retook it.