AMMAN, 1 March 2005 — Jordan and Syria yesterday signed 21 accords for boosting bilateral cooperation, including agreements for combating terrorism and border demarcation.
The agreements were signed at the end of two days of meetings by the Joint Higher Commission, co-chaired by the Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Fayez and his Syrian counterpart Mohammad Naji Al-Otari.
The anti-terror accord provided for the extradition of suspects who may cross the common border or the frontiers with Iraq, officials said.
The border demarcation accord, which ends a 50-year dispute, provides for the return of 125 square kilometers of land to Jordan, while Syria recovers 2.5 square kilometers from Jordan.
Under the accord agreed after several top-level security meetings over the last six months, Syria will remove fences and posts on land it had gained in decades of creeping incursions into Jordan.
Syrian Prime Minister Naji Al-Otari said the deal reconfirmed an internationally recognized border drawn in 1931.
“This demarcation of borders is a step forward to the cooperation we started several years back,” Otari said.
Syria and Jordan, both neighbors of Iraq, have long been at odds over the aims of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the Middle East peace process.
Jordan has in recent months joined Washington in piling pressure on Damascus to be more supportive of the postwar political process in Iraq.
Syria opposed the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and Washington has accused it of failing to stop infiltration and weapons smuggling into Iraq. Syria denies the accusations.
Yesterday’s agreement was the first attempt to settle the issue since talks between Jordan’s late King Hussein and late Syrian President Hafez Assad stalled after the 1991 Gulf War. “We have now signed the accord and I believe ending this issue will rebuild trust and cooperation,” Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan said after signing the accord with his Jordanian counterpart, Samir Habashneh.
Syria’s incursions over the years stretched as far as three kilometers in some places along the 375 km border, mostly at the eastern fringe near the Iraqi frontier.
“There is a stretch of land estimated at 125 square km that has been returned back to Jordan.
“There is no negative repercussions in this deal,” Habashneh said. “Both sides regained their historic rights.”
Jordan said it hoped a security deal also signed yesterday would seal the Syrian-Jordanian border amid concerns militants were assisting Jordanian extremists in alleged plots to attack Jordanian and US targets in the kingdom.
“We are talking about regional security issues and our neighbor Syria will now work with us to prevent terrorism and organized crime,” Habashneh said.
