ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is scheduled to visit Jordan on Wednesday to meet with King Abdullah II, according to Jordan’s state media.
The state-run Jordanian News Agency (Petra) reported that King Abdullah II will meet with Sharaa during his visit to Amman on Wednesday.
The visit represents the second official trip by a senior official from Syria’s new leadership to Jordan.
On January 7, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani traveled to Amman for talks with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman al-Safadi. The two ministers discussed border security, the risks of drug and arms trafficking, terrorism, and the threats posed by the Islamic State ISIS. They also announced the formation of joint committees between their countries in the fields of energy, health, trade, and water.
Jordan has faced significant challenges with drug trafficking - particularly the smuggling of Captagon from Syria into Jordan or to other countries via Jordan - during the years of the Syrian conflict, which began in 2011. Amman has led several operations to combat border smuggling, some of which have resulted in casualties.
Safadi visited Damascus on December 23 and met with Sharaa, reaffirming Jordan's readiness to assist in Syria's reconstruction. Earlier, on December 14, Jordan hosted a meeting on Syria, with foreign ministers from eight Arab countries, the United States, France, Turkey, and representatives from the European Union and the United Nations. In January, Jordan sent 300 tons of humanitarian aid to Syria.
Syria remains an important trade partner for Jordan, although the conflict has caused a significant decline in trade between the two countries, from $617 million in 2010 to $146.6 million in 2023.
Jordan shares a 375-kilometer land border with Syria and has hosted more than 1.3 million Syrian refugees since the onset of the conflict in 2011, while UN figures show about 680,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan.
