Published : 22 Sep 2026, 09:33 PM
Updated : 22 Sep 2026, 09:33 PM
The Trump administration has proposed investing $5 billion in a fund to help West Asian countries rebuild energy infrastructure damaged by the Iran War, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
The plan aims to reduce the region's reliance on the Strait of Hormuz for oil and gas shipments.
The US would seek matching contributions from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq and Jordan, creating a proposed $10 billion fund called the Partnership for Allied Trust and Construction, or Pact, the report added.
The WSJ reported that officials consider launching the fund before a peace deal with Iran premature, as new infrastructure could remain vulnerable to drone and missile attacks.
The fund would be managed by the Development Finance Corporation, a US government agency that works with the private sector on national security projects, according to the Journal.
The Iran War has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, driving up fuel prices and pushing West Asian countries to seek alternative energy routes.
"There seems to be a realisation within all Arab Gulf states and even in Iraq that the status of the Strait of Hormuz in the short to medium term will not revert back to what it was before the conflict," Umer Karim, a Gulf security researcher at the UK's University of Birmingham, told the Journal.
"They need to work upon creating viable, secure, and dependable routes and corridors that can bypass the strait," Karim said.
