A key border crossing between northern Lebanon and Syria reopened on Monday after two years closed, restoring a trade and travel route that officials said could eventually handle up to 10,000 travellers a day.

The Abboudieh-Dabbousieh crossing links the Akkar region of Lebanon with Homs province in Syria. It had been shut since it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike in November 2024, during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Passenger and commercial traffic has now resumed after extensive repairs, including reconstruction of the bridge connecting the two countries.

Mazen Alloush, director of relations and international cooperation at Syria’s General Authority of Borders and Customs, said on Tuesday that the crossing would be able to accommodate between 8,000 and 10,000 travellers and 150 to 250 freight trucks each day when fully operational, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Easing pressure on the main crossing

The reopening is expected to ease pressure on the Masnaa crossing in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, known as Jdeidet Yabous on the Syrian side, which has handled most of the land traffic between the two countries while the two northern crossings were closed. The second of those crossings, Arida, which connects Lebanon’s Akkar region with Syria’s coastal Tartous province, is expected to reopen in December after rehabilitation work.

For businesses in northern Lebanon, an area long affected by underinvestment, the reopened crossing offers the prospect of renewed trade, restoring a direct link between the region, including the Port of Tripoli, and Syrian industrial facilities in Hassia and the Port of Tartous.

UNHCR and EU backing

The reopening was carried out with the support of UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and its partners, and with funding from the European Union, according to a UNHCR account of the project. The work included restoring the damaged bridge and rehabilitating the immigration building, and officials said it would help refugees returning from Lebanon to Syria make the journey home in a smoother, safer and more dignified way.

Syria’s customs authority had announced on 7 November that the crossing would reopen from the following Monday, once the necessary logistical and operational arrangements were complete, with the aim of resuming the movement of people and goods and regulating shipping and entry procedures between the two countries.

A reset in relations

The reopening comes as Lebanon and Syria seek to reset a relationship shaped by decades of Syrian intervention in Lebanon. Syrian troops entered Lebanon in 1976 and remained there until 2005, a period during which the Assad regime in Syria was accused of involvement in political assassinations in Lebanon.

When Israeli attacks damaged the crossing in November 2024, Bashar Assad, a key Hezbollah ally, was still president of Syria, and border routes were used as conduits for weapons bound for the group in Lebanon. Assad fled to Russia the following month as a rebel offensive swept through Damascus, and the new authorities in Syria have sought closer ties with Lebanon.