ALEPPO — Syria's interim government reopened a border crossing with northern Iraq last month and announced the country would serve as a neutral conduit for regional stability and an alternative oil export route bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. The crossing had been closed for more than a decade, and officials said it provides an additional route for energy exports.

Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Damascus has strengthened relations with Arab and Western capitals by staying neutral. Syrian leaders have worked to rebuild ties with countries that shunned Syria under former President Bashar Assad, who was ousted in December 2024 by rebels who then installed a new government.

"Syria has presented itself as the solution to strategic crises in the region," said Obayda Ghadban, an official with the Syrian Foreign Ministry. He said the warring parties were strategic adversaries of Damascus. "The parties participating in it are strategic enemies of Syria, whether we talk about Iran and its affiliates, or if we talk about Israel and its aggressive expansionist policy in Syria. Both parties have an interest in weakening Syria," Ghadban said.

Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa addressed the country's posture in a speech. "Syria, which was once an arena for others' conflicts, has today chosen, through the will of its people and institutions, to be a bridge to security and a fundamental pillar of the solution," he said. "Syria is the alternative and secure artery connecting Central Asia and the Gulf to the heart of the European continent," al-Sharaa said.

Since Iran blocked access to the strait, oil shipments have been trucked from Iraq into Syria and shipped to European markets via Syria's Baniyas port. The overland route is less efficient and more expensive than shipping through the strait but offers an alternative as long as Iran controls the channel.

Despite missiles occasionally falling on its territory, Syria stayed on the sidelines of the regional war. "Damascus was really clear from the beginning that it wanted no part of this war and signaled to everyone accordingly," said Noah Bonsey, senior adviser on Syria with the International Crisis Group. He said that because the U.S. military had drawn down its presence in Syria before the war with Iran began, eastern Syria hosted very few U.S. assets and personnel that could have drawn Iranian fire.

Syria endured 14 years of civil war, during which Iran was a key ally of Assad. After Assad's fall, the Israeli military seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and has been occupying it. Syria's new government faces increasing discontent from the population over its weak economy, and Bonsey said postwar reconstruction prospects had narrowed. "Damascus had counted on investment from wealthy Gulf Arab countries for postwar reconstruction, but those countries will have fewer resources and less bandwidth to spare as they focus on their own defense and economies after the war," he said.