ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A senior advisor to the Emirati president on Thursday criticized what he described as Iranian attempts to “encroach upon the maritime sovereignty” of the United Arab Emirates as “pipe dreams.” The remarks came a day after a newly established Iranian regulatory body, set up to assert control over the Strait of Hormuz, outlined its jurisdiction for managing the waterway, claiming an area that includes Emirati waters.
Anwar Gargash, Diplomatic Advisor to the Emirati President, said that “attempts to control the Strait of Hormuz or to encroach upon the maritime sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates are nothing but pipe dreams,” describing them as an effort to “entrench a new reality born out of a clear military defeat.”
In a post on X, he added, “We have become accustomed to Iranian intimidation over many decades as it has become part of the political landscape in the Arabian Gulf,” noting that after “the brutal Iranian aggression,” credibility “has been lost between aggressive rhetoric and hollow statements of friendship.”
Gargash further stressed that “anyone who seeks to coexist with their Arab environment must understand that trust has been lost, and restoring it cannot be achieved through slogans, but through responsible language, safeguarding sovereignty, and genuine commitment to the principles of good neighborliness.”
The sharp Emirati remarks come a day after Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) on Wednesday published a map on X outlining what it described as its “regulatory jurisdiction for the management” of the Strait of Hormuz, including waters extending south toward the UAE’s eastern Emirate of Fujairah.
According to the Iranian body, the claimed jurisdiction stretches from the strategic town of Kuh-e Mubarak in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province on the coast of the Gulf of Oman to the waters south of Fujairah in the UAE, and to a line connecting the tip of Qeshm Island in Hormozgan with the UAE’s northern Emirate of Umm al-Quwain.
“Transit through this area for the purpose of passing through the Hormuz Strait requires coordination with, and authorization from, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority,” the Iranian entity claimed.
The tensions come as the UAE had on Friday made the first public unveiling of details of the development of a strategic multi-billion-dollar pipeline, the West-East 1 Pipeline, designed to significantly expand Abu Dhabi’s oil export capacity via Fujairah, allowing it to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, on Friday directed the acceleration of the project aimed at enabling the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to double its current export capacity through the Port of Fujairah from 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd). The volumes are currently exported via the west-to-east route widely known as the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline.
The US and Israel in late February launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran, striking thousands of targets across the country over six weeks of hostilities, before the warring sides agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks.
While the first round of talks concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place, with a comprehensive resolution to the conflict still pending.
In parallel with the diplomatic efforts, Iran and the US have engaged in tit-for-tat maritime measures. Tehran has tightened its grip on shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, while Washington imposed a maritime blockade on Iranian ports on April 13.
For the UAE, reports from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicate that nearly 100 percent of Abu Dhabi’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports - totaling close to 7 billion cubic meters annually - have been unable to reach global markets due to regional maritime disruptions.
By contrast, Abu Dhabi has partially mitigated the impact on its crude oil sector through the use of the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline.
Even so, the UAE’s oil production prior to the war stood at roughly 3.5 million barrels per day, with an estimated 40 to 45 percent of exports still constrained or forced to be rerouted because of the pipeline’s limited capacity.
Last updated at 1:40 pm