On September 8, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi told the Hili Forum in Abu Dhabi that the Strait of Hormuz is a “red line” for the Gulf. No single country gets to control who passes through it, he said, and no one gets to charge for the passage.
“International waterways must remain free from any form of restriction or toll,” he said. “No country owns the Strait of Hormuz, and no country should determine who can and can’t access it.”
The words carry weight because the strait is the world’s most important oil chokepoint.
Why it’s a red line
Before the war, roughly a fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas moved through the Strait of Hormuz. After the US and Israel struck Iran in late February, Iran briefly shut the strait. Prices spiked. Inflation spilled over.
The idea of charging for passage came out of that war. In April, Trump said the US, as the “winner,” could consider tolling ships. On July 14 he floated a 20% fee on cargo value, then reversed course the next day. Iran asked for more: 5% to 7% of cargo value, according to Reuters. Oman discussed around 3%. Washington wanted zero.
Everybody wants to charge for the water. The UAE’s position is that nobody gets to.
The UAE’s real move is to route around it
Beyond the rhetoric, the UAE is doing something harder. In June, Al Zeyoudi set a goal: cut the UAE’s dependence on Hormuz to zero, whether the strait is open or not.
The plan moves the country’s export focus from the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. Three eastern ports — Dibba, Fujairah, and Khor Fakkan — will be expanded, and at least one new port built. All of them sit outside the strait.
Pipelines are the other half. The existing east-west pipeline already carries 1.8 million barrels a day from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah. A second pipeline, announced in May, is due online in 2027 and will double Fujairah’s export capacity to more than 3.5 million barrels a day. A third is under study.
The UAE has also opened regional corridors linking the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Gulf of Oman, working with Oman to route UAE-bound cargo through Sohar and Duqm. Energy minister Al Jaber has said total energy capital expenditure will reach $150 billion.
The numbers are already in
The hard data sits on the trade side. UAE non-oil foreign trade hit a record Dh1.94 trillion in the first half — about $528 billion, up 13.1% year on year and nearly 80% above the same period in 2022. Non-oil exports hit a record Dh453 billion.
Al Zeyoudi reads that as proof the workarounds hold. These are not temporary fixes, he says, but a permanent repositioning.
“No other country has the ability to activate multiple new trade corridors at this scale and with this speed,” he said.
What it means for Dubai
For anyone doing cross-border business in Dubai, the signal is simple: the UAE is turning the risk of being choked at Hormuz into an upgrade of its own ports and logistics.
In the short term, the alternative routes cost more — detours, transshipment, war-risk premiums. In the long term, the eastern ports will absorb more transshipment and warehousing demand, and the UAE’s position as a logistics hub connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa gets stronger because of the crisis.
The toll fight will likely drag on. But the UAE has made its position clear, and it is already laying the road around the problem.
Sources
- The National: Strait of Hormuz is a ‘red line’ and cannot be tolled, UAE trade minister says (Sep 8, 2026)
- Reuters: Proposed Hormuz passage deal not feasible for shipping industry (Aug 6, 2026)
- CNBC: Is Hormuz open? Trump’s toll threat intensifies rush to bypass the Strait (Jul 14, 2026)
- Al Jazeera: Trump says US could charge for Strait of Hormuz passage (Apr 6, 2026)
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