The UAE’s top oil executive said the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively shut despite a two-day-old ceasefire, and demanded that Iran open access to the Gulf waterway “with no strings attached.”

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Group CEO of ADNOC and the UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, cited damage to the company’s oil facilities during the six-week war between the U.S., Israel and Iran, condemned Iran’s insistence that any passage of ships be under its supervision.

“Conditional passage is not passage – it is control by another name,” Al Jaber said in a statement posted today on LinkedIn. “Energy security and global economic stability depend on it.”

Iran has designated two safe routes for vessels entering and exiting Hormuz, which were established to avoid the potential presence of sea mines in the area, Bloomberg reported, citing Iran’s state-run Nour News.

The head of the International Maritime Organization, Arsenio Dominguez, meanwhile, condemned Iran’s imposition of fees crossing the Strait of Hormuz, telling Bloomberg Television, “We don’t even know if it guarantees the safety of the ships.”

Power plants and oil installations on both sides of the Gulf are girding against the probability of attacks tonight as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz ticks down.

Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday that, barring Iran’s compliance, the coming U.S. air assault would ensure that every power plant in the Islamic Republic will be “out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

The President set 8 p.m. EDT (4 a.m. GST) as the deadline for Iran to open the Gulf waterway, where about 20 million barrels of oil – 20% of world demand – flowed through every day before the conflict started Feb. 28. Oil prices rose as much as 1% today, with the benchmark Brent crude reaching $1.11 a barrel, a 50% increase over the past five weeks.

Iran, in turn, rejected Trump’s ceasefire terms and said it would retaliate by attacking energy facilities in U.S.-aligned Gulf states and Israel. Oil and gas plants owned by Aramco and ADNOC have been damaged in previous Iranian attacks. Saudi Arabia said today that it intercepted seven ballistic missiles from Iran, with ​debris falling near energy facilities.

The head of the International Energy Agency, meanwhile, said the ‌current oil and gas crisis  is “more serious than the ​ones in 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together.” IEA Chief Fatih Birol told ⁠Le Figaro in Paris that the ‌countries most at risk are developing ⁠nations, which will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.

A newly merged Abu Dhabi-backed production house will rival global streaming giants such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, according to Jeff Zucker, the former president of CNN who runs Redbird IMI.

Zucker told The National, an IMI-owned newspaper, that the merged entity of All3Media and Banijay, which will operate under the Banijay brand, would become the largest independent production company in the world.

“We have scale like no one else,” he said. Banijay holds a library of global TV hits, including “MasterChef,” “Big Brother,” and “The Traitors,” and has a combined revenue of more than $5 billion.

Zucker said the company’s strategy was focused on scale and adoption of artificial intelligence.

“Abu Dhabi is an incredibly important center for a lot of what’s going on, not just because it’s a great home for long-term capital and for opportunities of scale,” he said.

“It’s the center of what’s going on in the AI world.”

Paramount Skydance is looking to secure almost $24 billion from Gulf sovereign wealth funds backing its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, including about $10 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Abu Dhabi-based L’imad Holding and the Qatar Investment Authority are expected to make up the remainder, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Paramount, run by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison’s son David Ellison, secured a $111 billion deal for the Hollywood studio after aggressively pursuing a bidding war and scuppering its previous deal with Netflix.

In a bid to avoid scrutiny from U.S. regulators, the Gulf investments are structured as non-voting stakes. 

Iran is moving to turn its effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz into regulating passage of ships from selected countries through the strategic waterway.

Traffic through the Gulf channel has climbed to its highest level in weeks as more countries and shipping firms secure passage agreements with Iran, Bloomberg reports. 

Liquefied petroleum gas carriers and tankers linked to countries including India have been among the most active, with ships transiting under negotiated arrangements as Tehran permits carefully vetted cargoes to move.

Malaysia-linked and Iraqi crude shipments are also moving, including a Petronas-chartered tanker carrying about 1 million barrels, after Tehran granted exemptions or toll-free passage following diplomatic engagement. At the same time, Japanese, French and vessels from selected other countries have crossed along carefully managed routes.

Governments from the UAE and India to the Philippines, meanwhile, are bracing for fallout in the coming days when the deadline U.S. President Donald Trump set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz expires. 

Trump said U.S. forces would destroy Iranian power plants and bridges if Iran fails to comply with his ultimatum by 8 p.m. Washington on Tuesday – 3:30 a.m. Wednesday in Tehran. Iranian officials say they won’t obey Trump and have promised to respond with attacks on power plants in Israel and Arab states allied with the U.S.

The shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz is threatening income flows to the Philippines by disrupting economic activity across Gulf states where more than 2 million Filipino workers are employed. As companies cut operations, transfers sent home through banks and exchange agencies have been slowing, putting pressure on household incomes in a country where remittances account for roughly 10% of GDP.

At the same time, the disruption is hitting India’s fertilizer supply chain, which depends heavily on Gulf exports of urea and ammonia that move through Hormuz during the peak planting season. With shipments delayed or halted, Indian importers face tighter supplies and rising costs, raising the risk of lower yields and higher food prices in the months ahead.

Abu Dhabi’s green energy company Masdar is forming a $2.2 billion joint venture with France’s TotalEnergies, merging onshore renewable operations across nine Asian countries.

The new company will develop, own and operate solar, wind and battery projects with 3GW of capacity already operational and 6GW expected to be in advanced development by 2030.

Masdar’s global renewable portfolio is rapidly expanding, with a goal of reaching 100GW by 2030.

It comes as the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency said on Wednesday that the Middle East added a record 12.7GW of renewable energy last year, led by Saudi Arabia, which added more than 5.7GW.

The UAE has issued an advisory banning Iranian nationals from entering or transiting through the country, with a few exceptions.

The restrictions come amid heightened tensions from the Iran war, with airlines and travel advisories adjusting policies rapidly.

Emirates airline said that those who have a Golden Visa, are married to UAE nationals or born to an Emirati woman will be allowed in, as well as athletes, bank executives, doctors, families, engineers, investors, senior professionals or traders.

The UAE, a key global aviation hub, serves as a major transit point for international travelers, meaning that restrictions on certain nationalities can ripple across regional travel and airline operations.

Travelers are urged to review the latest entry requirements before booking or flying, as rules may change rapidly due to regional developments, the airline said. 

The head of the UAE’s national oil company said Iran’s disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz amounts to extortion, as attacks and threats against vessels curb traffic through the key energy corridor.

“When Hormuz flows, energy moves and economies grow – when it is disrupted, everyone pays.” Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, Group CEO of ADNOC and the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said in a LinkedIn post.

Warning that the crisis risks undermining global energy markets, Al Jaber called for international cooperation “to protect the free flow of energy and safeguard economic stability.”

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s oil exports fell by about 50% in March, dropping by roughly 3 million to 3.5 million barrels a day because of the blockade, Bloomberg reports.

The disruption has forced Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to rely on its East-West pipeline to move crude to Red Sea ports, which have capacity of roughly 5 million barrels a day, compared to normal export levels of about 7 million barrels a day.