On August 13, 2026, Emirati academic Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla posted about a decades-old proposal to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. He recalled a conversation in London where an Emirati-Omani affairs researcher reminded him of a 1972 project to connect the Arabian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman through the Musandam Peninsula’s mountains, known as the Maqlub or Maksar Passage. Abdulla suggested reviving the project with Emirati investment and Omani revenues to neutralize the strait as a strategic chokepoint.
The resurfacing of the idea follows repeated targeting of the strait during the 2026 Iran war, which included an August 8 Iranian missile strike on an ADNOC tanker that the UAE condemned as piracy. Iran has leveraged its control over the narrow waterway, through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes. A bypass through Omani territory in the Musandam Peninsula would allow Gulf oil exporters to avoid Iranian-controlled waters.
About a fifth of global oil consumption is estimated to transit the Strait of Hormuz, making alternative routes strategically significant. Although the proposal has resurfaced periodically since 1972, it has never been built due to cost and complexity. Abdulla’s post frames the project as newly urgent given the current security situation.