How Gulf Nations Are Bypassing The Strait Of Hormuz

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]Gulf nations are no longer simply waiting for stability to return to the straight of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman are rapidly expanding pipelines, ports, and overland trade routes as the region adapts to the possibility that one of the world's most important waterways may never be fully secure or free for navigation again.

[00:00:22]I'll explain how the Gulf is quietly working to bypass the straight.

[00:00:34]For decades, the straight of Hormuz was treated as one of the unavoidable realities of the global economy. Roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply pass through the narrow waterway separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula. And despite periodic threats and actions from Techron, most Gulf states operated under the assumption that these shipping lanes would always ultimately remain open. And now that assumption appears to be changing as the US and Israeli war with Iran continues to disrupt traffic through the strait. Gulf countries are increasingly adapting to the idea that the strait may no longer be a reliable part of the logistics supply chain. And rather than simply hoping that things get better and the Iranian regime has a change of heart, regional powers are accelerating efforts now to build around it using pipelines, Red Sea ports, overland trucking corridors, and entirely new supply chains designed to bypass the straight altogether. Saudi Arabia is perhaps best positioned for this new reality. Long before the current crisis, the Saudis invested heavily in what's known as the East West Pipeline, sometimes called Petrol Line.

[00:01:42]It's a massive system that allows crude oil to move from Saudi Arabia's oil richch eastern province across the kingdom to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

[00:01:50]The pipeline was originally developed during the Iran Iraq war and the so-called tanker war of the 1980s when attacks on shipping in the Gulf exposed just how vulnerable the region's energy infrastructure could become during conflict. And now, decades later, that old insurance policy has suddenly become one of the most strategically important pieces of infrastructure in the Middle East. Reports indicate Saudi Arabia has significantly increase shipments from Red Sea terminals in recent weeks, allowing large amounts of crude to bypass the straight of Hormuz entirely before heading toward Europe and global markets. And the Saudis are not alone.

[00:02:28]The United Arab Emirates has also shifted enormous attention toward its eastern coastline, particularly the ports of Fujara and Cororakan, both located outside the straight of Hormuz on the Gulf of Oman. Fujara has long served as a major energy hub connected to Abu Dhabi's oil fields through the Habsan Fujara pipeline. But since the closure of the strait, the port's importance has significantly increased.

[00:02:55]Tanker traffic, storage operations, and container shipments have all surged as companies scramble for alternatives to Gulf transit routes, vulnerable, of course, to Iranian disruption. In fact, reports indicate the UAE is now accelerating work on an additional West East pipeline project that would further increase export capacity outside the straight. In other words, infrastructure once viewed as a backup plan is rapidly becoming central to the Gulf's future strategies. But perhaps the most fascinating adaption is happening on land. For decades, the modern Gulf economy was built around maritime trade.

[00:03:32]Massive container ships and oil tankers efficiently carried goods through the straight. Overland transportation existed, of course, but largely as a secondary system, and that is now changing. Ports in Oman, including Sohara and Salala, are increasingly functioning as alternative entry points for goods headed into the Gulf. Cargo arriving there is then moved overland through Saudi Arabia and neighboring Gulf states using bonded trucking corridors and emergency customs coordination agreements designed to keep commerce flowing despite the maritime disruptions. A vast variety of cargo is now being rerouted across the Arabian Peninsula by truck convoys that until recently would have been considered economically impractical compared to sea transport. It's an extraordinary reminder of how quickly geopolitics can reshape global trade patterns. That said, there are still major limits to what the Gulf can accomplish without the waterway. Oil exports can be rerouted to some extent. Liqufied natural gas is far more difficult. Cutter, the world's largest LNG exporter, remains heavily dependent on access through the straight. And analysts say there are currently no true large-scale alternatives capable of replacing those export routes. Which means despite all these adaptions, the straight of Humus still remains critical. But the bigger story here may be psychological. For years, Gulf leaders largely treated disruptions in the strait as temporary crises. dangerous certainly, but ultimately manageable with enough American naval protection and diplomatic pressure. Now, the region appears to be preparing for something very different.

[00:05:14]A future in which instability around the strait is assumed, as well as the potential that going forward, Iran will insist on a toll arrangement to extract fees from vessels transiting the straight.

[00:05:27]All right, coming up next, new reports suggest Washington and Thrron may be inching toward a temporary peace deal.

[00:05:34]Not that we haven't heard that before, and Russia deepens military ties with the Taliban. I'll be right back.

[00:05:43]Hey, Mike Baker here. Now, I've spent a career thinking about how to protect what matters. Look, the threats change, but the response doesn't. Stay aware.

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[00:06:59]Welcome back to the PDB. We return to the increasingly surreal state of US Iran diplomacy. Despite fresh military clashes this week in and around the Strait of Hummus, negotiations between the US and Iran are still reportedly limping forward. According to new reporting from Axios, US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative 60-day memorandum of understanding, oh anou on Thursday aimed at extending the fragile ceasefire and launching formal negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. But despite the apparent progress or supposed progress or reported progress, however you want to put it, the proposed framework still requires final approval from President Trump, who reportedly wants a few more days to think about it. I should also note that Iranian officials have not publicly confirmed their acceptance of a deal. And Iranian state media said Thursday afternoon that reports of a finalized deal were false. Now, as we've mentioned here before on the PDB, this has become a regular pattern. News from US officials of the White House of an almost deal, cautiously optimistic statements from the US side, silence from the Iranians, followed by the White House expressing frustration and issuing threats, denials of any agreement from the regime, a rinse, wash, and repeat.

[00:08:18]This time around, President Trump has reportedly circulated a draft version of a proposed agreement among key regional allies, including Israel. Meanwhile, diplomats are scrambling to prevent fresh military flare-ups from collapsing the negotiations entirely with Pakistan's foreign minister on route to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio later today. Given the events of the past week, that concern appears well very justified. As we discussed yesterday on the PDB, US and Iranian forces exchanged fire once again on Wednesday and Thursday after US officials say Tehran launched several one-way attack drones near the Strait of Hormuz, targeting both US naval assets and commercial shipping. American fighter aircraft reportedly intercepted multiple drones before US forces struck a drone control station. Iran later responded by launching a ballistic missile toward Kuwait which was intercepted and against all known definitions of ceasefire. The US continues to insist that the ceasefire is still holding. Now according to Axios, this proposed memorandum of understanding or reported agreement would effectively serve as a temporary framework deal to keep whatever we're calling this ceasefire alive. It would not represent a final peace deal. Under the current draft, the ceasefire would be extended for an additional 60 days while formal negotiations begin over Iran's nuclear program, starting with how to dispose of Tehran's stockpile of highlyenriched uranium, how to address future enrichment, and what role the International Atomic Energy Agency would play. The draft would also reportedly require Iran to guarantee unrestricted commercial shipping through the straight of Hormuz, including the removal of naval mines within 30 days and an end to what US officials describe as harassment of commercial vessels operating in the waterway. In exchange, the US would reportedly begin lifting its naval blockade in phases tied to the restoration of commercial shipping traffic. The framework would also reportedly include limited sanctions waiverss allowing Iran to resume oil exports, discussions over the release of frozen Iranian assets, and discussions of a mechanism to allow humanitarian goods and commercial supplies to begin flowing back into the country. Finally, and perhaps most controversially, the memorandum would also include provisions to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Now, despite this broad framework, many of the biggest and most politically explosive issues appear intentionally unresolved. And that is a sentence that we've used before on the PDB to explain every previous supposed almost deal. The framework reportedly does not require Iran to immediately dismantle its nuclear infrastructure, permanently end uranium enrichment, or make binding long-term concessions before negotiations begin. Instead, many of those details supposedly would be deferred into the formal talks themselves somewhere down the road, which is already causing significant discomfort inside Israel. Now, I'm not sure how you actually say kick the can down the road in Farsy, but that may be an expression currently being used by the Iranian leadership. According to the Guardian, Israeli officials are deeply uneasy with portions of the draft agreement, particularly provisions that would defer major nuclear commitments while also tying any permanent ceasefire to the conflict involving Hezbollah in Lebanon. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu have reportedly already had a tense phone call over this matter.

[00:12:00]Zooming out, it increasingly appears that the White House is willing to prioritize stabilization and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz over pursuing the kind of nuclear demands that dominated much of the earlier rhetoric surrounding the conflict. The danger for the White House here is that if the framework agreement, should it materialize, appear to provide concessions to the regime in exchange for simply reopening the strait, well, that would be difficult to spin as a victory. Trump has been clear in recent days though that he will not quote take a bad deal. Needless to say, there remains a wide gap of trust between the US and Iran. President Trump himself appeared notably frustrated during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, warning that Iran was quote negotiating on fumes and suggesting the US may still need to quote finish the job if Thrron refuses to accept American terms. Meanwhile, Iranian officials continue demanding the release of frozen assets and sanctions relief while accusing Washington and Israel of attempting to destabilize the regime. And inside Iran, the regime appears to be facing growing internal strain. Amnesty International says Iranian authorities have arrested more than 6,000 people since the war began in February, while economic pressure, fuel shortages, and the lingering fallout from the country's prolonged internet blackout continue fueling tensions inside the country. Okay, I want to turn now to Russia's deepening relationship with the Taliban as Moscow signs a new military cooperation agreement with Kabell, cementing the Kremlin's push to legitimize a regime that the rest of the world refuses to recognize. What we're learning from new reporting by Politico is that the agreement was signed on Wednesday during talks between Afghanistan's defense minister and Russia's security council secretary Sergey Shoyu at the international security forum in Moscow. Shyu described Russia as building what he called a quote full-fledged partnership. Well, that's nice. With the Taliban and urged countries across the region to expand contacts with Kabell. While the exact contents of the agreement remain classified, the language being used here is worth paying attention to. Taliban and Kremlin officials described this as a quote military technical cooperation pact. Now, on paper, that may sound vague or bureaucratic, but in practice, that kind of terminology usually points to arms transfers, military licensing, training programs, equipment support, and potentially even joint defense projects. In simple terms, this goes well beyond just diplomatic outreach.

[00:14:36]Russia is not just reopening channels with the Taliban. Moscow is steadily integrating the group into a strategic relationship while simultaneously pressuring the rest of the world to begin treating the Taliban government as politically legitimate. And for you history buffs, if you think about that just for a second, you'll know that represents an extraordinary reversal.

[00:14:57]For those unfamiliar, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan back in 1979 and spent the next decade fighting a brutal war against Islamist guerrilla fighters backed by the US, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and others. That war became one of the Soviet Union's great geopolitical disasters. Tens of thousands were killed. Soviet resources were drained for years, and many historians view Afghanistan as one of the conflicts that accelerated the collapse of the Soviet Union. and many of the militant networks that eventually evolved into the Taliban grew directly out of that antis-siet insurgency. So now, decades later, the Kremlin is signing military agreements with a movement tied to the forces that Moscow once spent years fighting. Life's a funny thing. But this shift wasn't sudden. Following the US invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, Moscow gradually began reccalibrating how it viewed the Taliban. And over time, the Kremlin increasingly stopped seeing the group simply as a terrorist organization and started viewing it as a useful counterweight against ISIS expansion and long-term American influence in Central Asia. And then came the collapse of the westernbacked Afghan government. In 2021, the Taliban rapidly swept back into power as the Biden administration carried out the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, reestablishing control over the country while imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Now, officially, world governments still refuse to formally recognize the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

[00:16:34]Russia, however, has moved aggressively in the opposite direction. In 2025, Russia's Supreme Court suspended the Taliban's terrorist designation, which had been in place since 2003. The Kremlin then accepted a Taliban ambassador to Moscow.

[00:16:51]All right, coming up in the back of the brief, the FBI says they've arrested a former senior CIA official who kept hundreds of gold bars worth tens of millions of dollars hidden inside his home. Then again, who hasn't done that sort of thing? More on that when we come back.

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[00:18:24]In today's Back of the Brief, I want to bring you a bizarre scandal unfolding inside the intelligence community and around Washington DC after federal investigators discovered more than $40 million worth of gold bars hidden inside the home of a former CIA official. And right now, the sheer scale of what authorities say they found is raising enormous questions about exactly what this official was doing and how someone working at one of the most secretive agencies could have allegedly accumulated a stockpile of gold.

[00:18:57]According to newly unsealed court documents, federal agents arrested David Rush last week after an investigation involving both the FBI and the CIA. What we know about Rush is that he's described in the filings as a former quote senior executive service level employee at a US government agency, though multiple people familiar with the matter told the New York Times he recently held a senior position at the CIA. Rush is currently being held in jail pending a detention hearing in the coming days. Now, officially, the only criminal charges filed against him involve allegedly falsifying military leave payments and inflating academic credentials while falsely claiming that he remained a member of the Navy Reserve after he'd already been discharged. So, it appears from what is currently being said that Russ was being looked at, at least initially, for lying about his academic and military credentials. Now, that's something that perhaps you would think might have surfaced during the vetting process before he was brought on board at the CIA. I mean, it is basic due diligence. Not to mention, you could argue the polygraph should have identified the discrepancies. But I digress. When investigators searched his Virginia home, the case escalated into something far more extraordinary. The court records reveal FBI agents searched the home on May 18th before Rush was arrested the following day. According to the affidavit, agents discovered 303 gold bars inside the residence, each weighing around 1 kilogram. Agents also seized roughly $2 million in cash along with nearly three dozen luxury watches, many of them Rolexes. Well, how about that? I had no idea the government pay had improved so much since I last worked there. Suddenly, what had appeared to be a relatively straightforward fraud investigation began looking like something far stranger. According to case filings, Russia supposedly requested and received quote a significant quantity of foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in gold bars for work rellated expenses between the months of November and March. But when the CIA attempted to account for those materials, now where did we put those gold bars? The agency was reportedly quote unable to locate the gold bars or significant amounts of the foreign currency. Federal investigators now say they found them sitting inside his house. Well, no wonder they couldn't find them. To be clear, intelligence agencies do at times use cash or foreign currency, gold, or other difficult to trace assets for covert operations, clandestine logistics, uh asset payments, or overseas activities where traditional banking systems may not be practical. But at least in my experience, there is a tightly controlled process for the distribution, dispersement, and accounting of any funds in any form by the agency's bean counters. And honestly, I never walked into the office and said, "I'm going to need me some gold bars, and I'll sign for them later." Oh, and give me some of them Rolexes while you're at it. Never did that. Investigators still have not publicly explained what specific work-related expenses would have justified moving tens of millions of dollars in precious metals in the first place. Notably, authorities have not accused Rush of espionage or alleged that he was working on behalf of a foreign government. Obviously, the public record thus far leaves numerous unanswered questions about whether the gold was tied to covert CIA operations, unauthorized diversions of agency resources, or some entirely separate scheme, or if Rush perhaps found a flaw in the finance system at the agency that allowed him to requisition hundreds of gold bars and cash and expensive watches for his own personal entertainment.

[00:22:39]And that, my friends, is the president's daily brief for Friday the 29th of May.

[00:22:44]If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbthefirsttv.com.

[00:22:49]And of course, as mentioned at the top of the show, it's Friday. Now, avid PDB listeners know that Fridays bring the release of new episodes of our weekend show, the PDB Situation Report, and today is no different. Our latest episode launches this evening at 10 p.m.

[00:23:03]on the First TV. You can also catch it and past episodes on our YouTube channel. That's at President's Daily Brief and podcast platforms everywhere.

[00:23:13]I'm Mike Baker and I'll be back later today with the PDB afternoon bulletin.

[00:23:18]Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.

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[00:24:36]Thanks for watching today's briefing. If you enjoyed the video, be sure to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications so you never miss one of our daily updates.

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