The trade pact negotiated last week by the UAE and Japan should strengthen Japanese auto exports by gradually removing tariffs.

The agreement calls for the UAE to eliminate duties on many finished cars from Japan within seven years, easing costs for manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda, Nippon reports.

Japanese officials say the deal will help their companies compete more effectively with South Korean automakers, whose country already has a similar trade agreement with the UAE spaced over 10 years.

The UAE has become Japan’s biggest trading partner in the Middle East and Africa, making the Gulf market increasingly important for Japanese car exports.

Qatar transported 75 competition horses and their grooms for safe refuge in Belgium after cancellation of the Longines Global Champions Tour of Doha due to the Iran conflict.

Another 63 horses are scheduled to make the crossing from Qatar to the “Horse Inn” in Liege, Belgium, this week, Equnews reports.

The Belgian facility is a hub for moving high-value sport horses for the Olympics and major tournaments, often in response to geopolitical crises.

Meanwhile, leading European trainers and owners say they will delay decisions on sending horses to the $30 million Dubai World Cup meeting, watching security developments in the Middle East before committing runners to the March 28 event, TDN reports.

Muscat International Airport has turned into a key evacuation hub from the Iran conflict for wealthy Gulf travelers, with a surge in business-jet departures.

Since Feb. 28, more than 90 private jets have departed from the normally quiet Omani airport, Bloomberg reports.

Private jet broker LunaJets received over 800 evacuation requests in 24 hours amid regional panic, arranging two large group flights from Muscat.

Meanwhile, Etihad Airways, Emirates, flydubai and Air Arabia have begun restoring parts of their networks with reduced schedules as regional airspace restrictions ease, warning passengers that some journeys may take longer due to rerouted flight paths.

Gulf governments are reviewing overseas investments and financial commitments as the economic strain of the Iran conflict spreads across the region.

The reassessment could affect investment pledges to foreign companies, sports sponsorships, business contracts and potential asset sales, the Financial Times reports, citing an unnamed Gulf official and industry analysts.

One avenue being examined is whether they can invoke force majeure clauses to suspend contractual obligations. Current and future investments are also being reevaluated to ease anticipated financial strain if the war continues, the newspaper reports.

The conflict is already playing havoc with the Gulf economy: shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been virtually shut down after Iranian attacks on oil tankers, Qatar suspended production at its main LNG plant following a drone strike, and Iranian attacks on regional infrastructure are disrupting air travel and tourism.

The region’s sovereign wealth funds could also scale back overseas investments or redirect capital toward national “resilience projects” if a prolonged disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz interrupts energy flows, Global SWF reports.

Under that scenario, Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala would channel capital into industries supporting economic stability and supply chains, and L’imad Holding could steer funds toward logistics and security infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund would also likely slow the pace of domestic mega projects while selectively investing abroad in global technology and infrastructure, Global SWF said.

The UAE’s years-long property rally faces its first major test after Iranian missile strikes unsettled investors, sending shares in developers such as Aldar Properties and Emaar Properties down almost 5%.

The sell-off comes as analysts had already warned that a pipeline of new housing supply expected by 2028 could outpace population growth, Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, bond prices of major developers also dropped sharply, effectively shutting the debt market.

With expatriates and overseas buyers underpinning much of the market’s demand, investors say the outlook will depend largely on whether foreign appetite for property in the UAE holds up.

Container shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and A.P. Moller-Maersk have halted bookings and begun diverting vessels away from the Middle East amid escalating security risks in the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global trade routes.

The moves by the two European carriers – among the world’s biggest container lines –  come as the threat of missile and drone attacks has forced shipping companies to reroute cargo or suspend transits through the narrow Gulf waterway, The Wall Street Journal reports.

More than 3,000 vessels have been stuck in Gulf ports or waiting outside the strait as insurers withdraw war-risk coverage and shipowners hesitate to send crews into what has effectively become a combat zone.

At the same time, oil shipping has begun to stall as dozens of supertankers either idle inside the Persian Gulf or slow their voyages while owners assess whether it is safe to attempt the passage, Bloomberg reports.

The disruption in the corridor that normally carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supplies has sent tanker charter rates soaring and raised fears of prolonged shocks to global supply chains. 

Egypt said it could facilitate the transit of Saudi oil through its territory to ease export bottlenecks, positioning the Suez Canal and its pipeline infrastructure as alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz.

Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi said Tuesday that Egypt is prepared to transport Saudi crude from the Red Sea port of Yanbu to the Mediterranean via the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline, known as Sumed.

The proposal comes after Reuters reported that Saudi Aramco told some buyers of its Arab Light crude that cargoes must be loaded at Yanbu on the Red Sea coast – a move sources say is intended to bypass the Strait of Hormuz following recent attacks on shipping.

The line runs across Egypt from the Gulf of Suez to the Mediterranean and has a capacity of about 2.5 million barrels a day, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Etihad Rail’s passenger service, one of this year’s most anticipated infrastructure projects,soft-launched this week with little of the fanfare planned for its official debut, as it was thrown into action to help ferry travelers stranded by the conflict with Iran. 

With tens of thousands of passengers marooned by the closure of Middle East air spaces, many are scrambling to find alternate routes home.

Some wealthy travelers are paying private security and charter jet companies to whisk them overland to airports in Muscat and Riyadh. 

Etihad Rail, which will eventually carry travelers across the Emirates at up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) an hour, ran three trains ferrying more than 350 residents of the UAE back to Abu Dhabi from the Al Ghuwaifat border crossing with Saudi Arabia. It appears likely to continue running similar rescue operations until commercial flights resume.

“Operations will continue as required, in close co-ordination with the competent authorities, until air traffic resumes and flights return to their regular schedules,” Mohammed Al Shehhi, Chief Projects Officer at Etihad Rail, said. 

While Etihad Rail was scheduled to launch passenger services this year, with 11 stations announced so far, the official launch date has yet to be announced. It is expected to carry 36 million passengers by 2030, with a journey from Abu Dhabi to Dubai taking less than an hour.