Syrian Border

The Lebanon Daily Star has an article about escalating tension between Jordan and Syria over both land Jordan says is occupied by Syria and infiltration of militants and weapons into Jordan either unimpeded or actively aided by the Damascus government. This comes as the United States claims to win Syrian cooperation in stopping militant infiltration into Iraq and pressure mounts on Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. Syria has the reputation of an ally in the fight against al-Qaeda, yet this article suggests the two are working together in some manner. It may be that if al-Qaeda has formed connections to Hizbullah that Syria's stance has also shifted. However, this is all very murky, and a lot more evidence will have to come to light before we can get the straight of it.

Incidentally, I have been an accessory to smuggling between Syria and Jordan. Produce prices are higher in Jordan than Syria, so people providing transportation across the border will stock up in Syria, claim it all belongs to the foreigners, and then sell at a higher price in Jordan. Because Syria doesn't seem to have an enforced taxi license system, this is a gig anyone can get in on, and on one of my trips my friends and I were apparently used in a watermelon smuggling scheme. It was funny when the border guards inspected the vehicle and unloaded all the watermelons looking for something being smuggled. It was even funnier when I looked around and saw that over 80% of the cars being inspected had watermelons in the trunk.

UPDATE: See the comments for some security implications for watermelon smuggling we didn't consider, as confirmed here.