Khorfakkan

Khorfakkan is a port city in the Emirate of Sharjah on the Gulf of Oman coast of the United Arab Emirates, geographically separated from the main UAE landmass by a strip of Omani territory. Its position on the Gulf of Oman rather than the Persian Gulf made it a critical bypass route during the 2026 Hormuz blockade: vessels could unload at Khorfakkan and transfer cargo overland or via short coastal transit without attempting the blocked strait. Alongside the larger Fujairah terminal, Khorfakkan became one of the two primary UAE ports used to circumvent Iranian control of Hormuz.

On 4 May 2026, Iran publicly declared an expanded maritime control area that brings Fujairah and Khorfakkan inside the kinetic zone for the first time in the war. The expansion was announced simultaneous with the first Iranian attack on UAE territory since the Trump Ceasefire of 16 April. Iran has stated that its enlarged declared maritime control area now covers the bypass infrastructure the UAE was using to maintain partial commercial flow.

The practical effect is that the UAE's two Gulf-of-Oman ports, which had functioned as relief valves for the Hormuz blockade, are now explicitly inside Iran's stated operational perimeter. Whether Iran has the air and naval assets to enforce strikes at Khorfakkan's distance from Bandar Abbas, approximately 200 km across open water, is an operational question European insurance underwriters and P&I clubs are now pricing.