Pipelines going West
The US-Zionist plans to re-shape West Asia via new energy and trade corridors.
On 19 March 2026, one day after the US and Israel attacked Iran's South Pars gas field, which supplies roughly 80 percent of the country's domestic natural gas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his vision for the region: "Just have oil pipelines, gas pipelines going west through the Arabian Peninsula, right up to Israel, right up to our Mediterranean ports, and you've just done away with the choke points forever."
Following Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz as an assertion of sovereignty, soaring oil prices have been felt across the world and have triggered what is becoming the largest energy crisis in history. Netanyahu seized the moment, presenting an overland pipeline corridor as a "clear solution" to eliminate Iran's ability to leverage its geography. By routing Gulf oil westward across the Arabian Peninsula to Israel's occupied Mediterranean ports, the Strait of Hormuz would be completely bypassed, elevating Israel's strategic importance as a global energy and transit hub.
Netanyahu’s proposal is not anything new. It reflects the longstanding US-Israeli strategy to reshape West Asia. Through hybrid warfare, the U.S. and Israel have sought the total disarmament of all regional forces opposed to their hegemony and genocidal expansionist project. Normalisation deals with Arab states bordering Palestine has proven essential to this strategy, creating asymmetrical dependencies on Israeli energy exports and cultivating the comprador class of Arab elites invested in sustaining the Zionist project.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has accelerated the drive for East-West energy corridors. Through the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC), Israel aims to become the unambiguous gateway for energy trade between Asia and Europe, in direct opposition to South-South trade. However, these plans are far from finalised. They stand in contention with alternative proposals that place Türkiye at the heart of redrawn energy supply chains.
This long read explores two main competing East-West energy corridors - the Türkiye corridor and the IMEC corridor - and examines how Israel’s normalisation deals have inverted its initial reliance on energy imports. Critically, although the US and Israel have pushed for the establishment of the IMEC corridor, Israel continues to benefit from an expanded Türkiye corridor due to its dependence on crude oil passing through that very route. We conclude that a total energy embargo on Israel must be enforced, which is capable of cutting off the fuel exports that enable Israel to advance its expansionist and colonial aspirations.