Refrigerated Truck Owners Demand Government Action over Land Transport Crisis

The owners of refrigerated trucks in Lebanon blocked the main road in the eastern town of Chtaura on Thursday to protest the government's procrastination in finding ways to export their goods after a land transportation crisis.

The drivers called on the government to help them transport the goods by sea two months after al-Qaida affiliate al-Nusra Front rebels seized Syria's Nasib crossing on the border with Jordan.

The protest was organized by the Syndicate of Refrigerated Truck Owners.

The demonstrators urged Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Zoaiter to act and said the government should work with the United Nations to open a road from al-Wazzani in West Bekaa to Jordan to avoid the “siege” imposed by al-Nusra Front.

They later reopened the Chtaura road.

More than 200 Lebanese truck drivers became trapped in Jordan and Gulf countries when the rebels took control of the Nasib crossing in April.

Most of them have returned home.

Nasib was the last border crossing between Syria and Jordan under government control, after rebels seized the Jamarek crossing in October 2013.

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