UAE Vows to Diversify Energy Routes, Says Exports Won’t Be ‘Held Hostage’ by Iran Conflict
DUBAI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates is pushing ahead with plans to reroute its energy exports and trade through new corridors, seeking to shield itself from the fallout of the U.S.-Iran conflict, a senior Emirati official said on Monday.
“Our energy exports will not be held hostage, nor will our trade and economic activity,” Anwar Gargash, adviser to the UAE president, told the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi. His remarks came as Gulf Arab states continue to grapple with the consequences of a war that has already drawn direct attacks on Emirati territory and shipping.
Tehran has fired missiles at the UAE and struck its oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global crude flows. In response, the UAE has quietly accelerated a years-long push to expand port capacity on its eastern coast, build new pipelines and develop railway and land-based trade links that bypass the strait, Gargash said.
The comments underscore a broader regional anxiety about reliance on maritime chokepoints and great-power security guarantees. While acknowledging that ties with Iran could eventually recover, Gargash warned that rebuilding trust after the attacks could take decades. He also criticised fellow Gulf Arab states for failing to forge a coordinated response to Iranian aggression, saying shared concerns had not been translated into a unified strategy.
“Our security is our first priority. When we depend entirely on others, we cannot always assume it will be their priority,” he said, offering a sharp rebuke to those in the region who have long relied on the United States as the ultimate security backstop.
U.S. ALLIANCE NOT ENOUGH
That sentiment was echoed by Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson at the same forum. Majed al-Ansari argued that Gulf states should not treat their strategic partnership with Washington as a substitute for their own defense capabilities.
“We need to realise in the Gulf that having international forces in the region, having a strategic alliance with the U.S., is very important but is not enough,” al-Ansari said. “Self-sufficiency when it comes to security is the only way forward.”
The remarks reflect a growing sense across the GCC that the U.S. security umbrella, however indispensable, may not always align with the Gulf’s priorities. The six-month-old conflict has tested that alliance in ways that few regional leaders had anticipated, prompting quiet but unmistakable moves toward military and economic self-reliance.
HORMUZ REMAINS A STICKING POINT
Iran has followed through on repeated threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, once the conduit for roughly a fifth of global energy supplies. The disruption sent oil and gas prices soaring and tipped the global economy into a fresh crisis, exposing how vulnerable energy markets remain to a narrow waterway.
The strait’s status is now one of the most volatile issues in negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with Qatar and Pakistan serving as mediators. Iran insists the waterway belongs to Iran and Oman — a position that Gulf Arab states broadly reject. Gargash was blunt: “Freedom of navigation is not a concession to be granted, nor a principle to be renegotiated under pressure.”
He added that any long-term settlement must include credible guarantees against further Iranian attacks on Gulf Arab states, beyond the temporary ceasefires that have so far failed to hold.
The conflict, triggered by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, remains deadlocked. A preliminary ceasefire reached in June unravelled within weeks, and efforts to revive the peace process have yielded little progress. Meanwhile, the UAE and its neighbours are bracing for a prolonged period of instability, investing heavily to ensure that even a closed Hormuz would not bring their economies to a halt.
(Reporting by Nayera Abdallah and Eman Abouhassira; Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Louise Heavens)