With Hormuz Choked, Syria Offers an Alternative

Syria is trying to turn a war-scarred crossroads into the Middle East's newest energy detour. Gerry Shih reports for the Washington Post from a desert highway now jammed with some 5,000 tanker trucks a day, hauling Iraqi oil to the Syrian port of Baniyas as exporters look for ways around the Strait of Hormuz, choked by the US-Israel war with Iran. Backed by the Trump administration, Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is pitching his country as a relatively steady land bridge from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, and Washington has thrown its weight behind a Chevron-led, $5.7 billion pipeline along the same route that could eventually move 2 million barrels a day. (Chevron is also getting in on a deal for Venezuela's oil.)

The plan is drawing interest from Qatar, Kuwait, and possibly Bahrain, and fits a broader push to reroute trade—think revived rail links and overland trucking routes—to Europe. But Shih details the obstacles: Islamic State cells, Iran-backed militias in western Iraq, mines and bombed-out infrastructure, and a Syrian oil sector gutted by years of war and sanctions. For a vivid look at how one fragile state is trying to profit from a reshaped energy map, read the full piece at the Washington Post.