On August 13, 2026, Emirati academic Dr. Abdulkhaleq Abdulla posted about a decades-old proposal to bypass the Strait of Hormuz. During a conversation in London, 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 argued that the cost-effective project should be revived with Emirati investment to bring Oman revenues and neutralize the strategic importance of the Hormuz chokepoint.
The idea resurfaced as the strait has faced repeated targeting during the 2026 Iran war, including an August 8 Iranian missile strike on an ADNOC tanker that the UAE condemned as piracy. Iran has leveraged its control of the narrow waterway, through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes. A bypass through the Omani territory of the Musandam Peninsula would allow Gulf oil exporters to avoid Iranian-controlled waters.
About a fifth of global oil consumption transits the Strait of Hormuz. Although the proposal has resurfaced periodically since 1972, it has never been built due to cost and complexity, but Abdulla’s post frames it as newly urgent given the current security situation.