Turkiye, Jordan, and Syria signed a trilateral memorandum of cooperation on transportation in Amman, with the aim of strengthening regional connectivity and boosting trade along a north–south corridor, with rail transport taking center stage. Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said the agreement aims to maximize the capacity of the Turkiye–Syria–Jordan axis and to increase exports, transit revenues, and the region’s logistical role.
According to the Turkish official, the new trilateral mechanism should help remove barriers for transport operators, expand opportunities in rail transport, and revitalize ports. At the same time, the ministers discussed reducing transit fees and other additional costs to make cross-border flows more fluid.
The Hejaz Railway Returns to the Agenda
One of the key points of the discussions was the revival of the Hejaz Railway, the historic line inaugurated in 1908, which connected Istanbul to Damascus and onward to the Arabian Peninsula.
Uraloğlu spoke both about the symbolic value of reactivating this route and the need for new rail connections between the three countries, adapted to current standards.
In the regional press, this move is presented as part of a broader effort to “activate” a regional corridor linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and, further on, to Europe and Central Asia.
Publications close to the Syrian side also report that implementation of the agreements is set to begin immediately, over a period of three years, with periodic progress reviews.
A logistics corridor from the Mediterranean to Aqaba
In addition to railways, the three countries also intend to treat port infrastructure as part of the same logistics chain. The Turkish minister stated that Turkish and Syrian ports on the Mediterranean, along with Jordan’s access to the Red Sea via Aqaba, should be viewed as a unified network.
Following this logic, the port of Aqaba could function as a land–sea bridge for goods arriving from the north and heading further south.
This idea is also directly linked to Asia–Europe traffic. Part of the new corridor’s potential lies in the cargo flows already reaching the eastern Mediterranean, which could be redistributed more quickly through a combined system of ports, rail, and road transport.
Next Step: Saudi Arabia
Uraloğlu also announced that technical delegations are set to arrive in Saudi Arabia as early as next week, as part of broader efforts to expand connectivity to the rest of the Arabian Peninsula and link this axis to Central Asia and Europe.
Meanwhile, Jordanian officials spoke of the need for clear mechanisms to implement joint projects and facilitate the exchange of expertise among the three countries.
For the railway, the stakes are clear: if the memorandum translates into concrete projects, the region could gain a new freight corridor of strategic importance, at a time when countries in the area are seeking to rebuild and reposition their logistics networks.
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