Amman: Two Jordanian citizens kidnapped in Syria have been safely returned to Jordan after more than two weeks in captivity, the country’s Foreign Ministry said.
The Ministry said on Saturday in a statement that Syrian authorities secured the release and transfer of the two individuals, who are in good health.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sufian Qudah expressed gratitude for Syria’s cooperation in freeing the captives and facilitating their return through official channels.
Qudah said the Ministry, through its Directorate of Operations and Consular Affairs and the Jordanian Embassy in Damascus, had been in constant contact with Syrian authorities since the kidnapping was reported.
The Ministry did not provide details about the circumstances of the kidnapping or the identities of the victims.
Jordan and Syria have been working to improve relations in recent years after a decade of tension due to Syria’s civil war.
The Jordanian citizens are Maher al-Soufi and Mohammad Owaida, both drivers, who went missing after delivering goods from Amman to Damascus and were on their way back, according to the Jordanian website Roya News.
Cases of kidnapping, disappearance, and arrest of Jordanians in Syria have been active since the opening of the border crossing between Syria and Jordan and the resumption of relations between the two parties in October 2018, followed by the entry of Jordanians into Syria for various reasons, including tourism and shopping.
The Jordanian and Syrian sides officially reopened the Nassib border crossing on October 15, 2018, after three years of closure due to military events, allowing Jordanian citizens to visit Syria.
In July 2023, young Ali al-Fityani and his friend disappeared in Damascus, and his father pleaded with the concerned authorities in Syria and Jordan to provide assistance and find out his son’s fate.
Jordan retrieved one of its citizens kidnapped by unknown individuals in As-Suwayda province in southern Syria in August 2019.
In May of the same year, Jordan retrieved two kidnapped citizens after the security services of the regime released them.
The Syrian regime released seven detained Jordanians in April 2020, after a request from the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The release came months after the Syrian Embassy in Jordan received a list of the names of Jordanian detainees in the regime’s prisons, from which some were later released.
Some Jordanians detained by the regime’s apparatuses are wanted by the Syrian intelligence on various charges, which the Jordanian authorities have repeatedly confirmed, calling for the disclosure of their citizens’ fate and their release.
–IANS
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