Alwaght- As the Iraqi forces are cleansing more border areas with Jordan of the terrorists, the Jordanian sources have said that logistical arrangements were underway to re-open Tureibi border crossing between the two countries.
An Iraqi official also said that the border path will resume work early in September, confirming the words of the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi who had maintained that steps were taken to re-operate the significant border passage between the neighbors.
Trebil is originally name of a village in Iraq’s al-Anbar province. The village gives its name to a major trade border crossing in the same area that links Iraq to Jordan and is named Karameh border crossing from the Jordanian side. As of 2010 figures, nearly 800,000 Iraqi and Jordanians passed the crossing per year, according to the Al Arab Al Yawn newspaper.
From the Jordanian side, the closest residential place to the border crossing is Ruwaished city. The Iraq-Jordan borders are 320 kilometers far from the Jordanian capital Amman, and 575 kilometers far from the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
Since 2014, the Iraqi forces have been fighting ISIS terrorist group in the area, a combat that destabilized security of the key trade path between the two countries. ISIS overran the Tureibi border crossing in 2014, when it seized control of the western Iraqi province of al-Anbar.
Why is Tureibi border cross crucial?
The border route is of high significance to both Jordan and Iraq as it stands as the only land border crossing through which commodities are traded between the two countries. In fact, Tureibi facilitates a large part of the trade between the two countries' businesspeople, though there is another one connecting the two countries but is not used for trade purposes. This importance was enough to call attention of the advancing ISIS in 2014, when it set seizing control of the crossing as its priority as part of its strategy to diversify its access roads.
US presence in Tureibi
As news emerged about Iraqi and Jordanian sides' decision to re-open the border crossing after its three years of shutdown, some sources have talked about the American intention to send forces to the area under the excuse of reconstructing and securing it.
Quoting an Iraqi diplomat, in April the Jordan Times website reported that “the Tureibi border crossing between Jordan and Iraq is expected to reopen in four months, after Iraq's cabinet awarded a tender to a security company to guard the main highway connecting Baghdad to the crossing border.” Now, it appears that the expected reopening comes as the security company is present in the area and is set to operate the route.
The Jordanian news outlet declined to reveal the name of the security company behind the re-operation, but it is highly likely that the operator is a branch of the notorious American security company Blackwater, the same company that after US invasion of Iraq was hired by the American government to do protection work for the American forces deployed to Iraq.
The media reports suggested that a delegation of the US Department of Defense visited the border route bringing with it a licensed security company as preparations to re-open the trade route are under way. Having in mind that Blackwater has been a contractor of the US army in Iraq, the analysts argue that it is much unlikely that the Department of Defense picks a security company other than a subsidiary of the Blackwater.
The US Department of Defense's involvement in protection of the border crossing is not an ordinary matter. Normally, there must be an expectation that now that the Americans are tasked with securing the border, ISIS terrorists will lose link on the two sides of the border, though early experiences prove otherwise. The ISIS terrorists more than once captured areas where the American forces were present or even in charge of protection. This was glaringly apparent when in 2014 the terrorists took Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar. The seizure of the city by ISIS fighters took place while the American forces were stationed at the checkpoints of roads that led to Ramadi.
The Ramadi fall to the terrorists while guarded by the American troops three years ago teaches a lesson: Entrusting a Pentagon-accepted security company with protection of the Jordan-Iraq border cannot guarantee cutting ISIS contacts on the two sides of the border.
