The United Arab Emirates is planning to build a new port and container terminal on the opposite side of the Strait of Hormuz, in a push to bypass the Iranian closure of the waterway, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
According to the report, the new port would be built in the city of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, which already has an existing harbor, but it lacks the necessary infrastructure to serve as a major export hub for the UAE.
The initiative will be led by DP World, the UAE's main port authority, and will also aim to reduce Dubai's dependence on its flagship Jebel Ali hub in the Persian Gulf.
According to the UAE's Arabian Business, the Emirates also plans to improve infrastructure at other ports in the Gulf of Oman, with the main plans centered on Dibba, Khor Fakkan, and the already mentioned Fujairah.
The push comes as conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran has complicated navigation in the Strait, with attacks against ships, marine mines, and fighting in the area stopping the transit in the waterway almost completely.
Replacing Strait of Hormuz with Mediterranean route
The Emirati decision to bypass the strait was also recommended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the beginning of the war with Iran, when he told Newsmax that the only long-term solution to the crisis in the Strait was to build pipelines to carry the Gulf state's oil and gas to the Mediterranean.
"Long-term solutions include rerouting energy pipelines westward, across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea and Mediterranean, bypassing Iran's geographic choke point," Netanyahu explained in an interview with conservative US media outlet Newsmax.
The project, which could be part of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) initiative, would transform Haifa into a key oil and gas exportation hub.
IMEC, unveiled by former US president Joe Biden during the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023, was conceived as a transformative infrastructure and trade project to link India with Europe through the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.
But even if there is political capital in Israel for the project to take place, sources told The Jerusalem Post last week that Saudi Arabia was pushing to take Israel out of the IMEC initiative.
One of the leading options under discussion would redirect the railway through Syria, creating a land bridge from the Gulf to the Mediterranean without passing through Israeli territory, they said.
At the same time, reports from Iran point out that the ruling elite is showing growing concern over the rapid progress of IMEC, according to sources familiar with the matter.
War didn't give IMEC momentum
Samantha Sutton, a fellow at the Atlantic Council and former Director at the US National Security Council, told the Post last week that the current crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is not pushing the Gulf States towards Israel’s inclusion in the initiative, with her saying that a peace agreement with the Palestinians and normalization plans would be actually useful.
“I think that after the war, these countries now view Israel more like a liability than a partner. And while in other regions involved in the initiative there are great relations with Israel, like in India, I don’t think the last war helped to improve the image of Israel in the Middle East,” she explained.
“What would be supportive is integrating the Jordanians and the Palestinians in the initiative. I believe that if IMEC helps establish normalization with Palestinians, and includes in some way the West Bank and Gaza, then the project and Israel’s participation would have much more support. And there are political actors in Israel who plan to run in the upcoming elections, interested in making this happen,” she added.
Amichai Stein and Anna Barsky contributed to this report.