Pakistan ramps up food exports to Persian Gulf nations as war deepens food insecurity
The Cradle | March 26, 2026
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif instructed authorities to speed up exports of surplus food to Persian Gulf states on 26 March, as disruptions caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran and Tehran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz strain regional supply routes and increase food security concerns.
“It is our duty to take care of the needs of food in the Gulf countries amid the current regional situation where global supply lines are affected,” Sharif said, according to a Prime Minister’s Office handout.
Sharif chaired a high-level meeting to review export plans, instructing officials to ensure domestic supply remains stable while scaling shipments abroad, and calling for expanded flight operations and improved port efficiency to respond to what officials described as an evolving regional situation.
Authorities approved 40 food items for export, including rice, edible oil, sugar, meat, poultry, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables.
Open sea and air routes are being used, with reduced transport costs and no additional export charges on key food categories.
Iran has taken de facto control of the Strait of Hormuz following the start of the US-Israeli war on the nation, severely restricting maritime traffic and allowing only coordinated or approved vessels to pass.
Under this system, Tehran grants access to “friendly” states such as Pakistan, China, India, Russia, Iraq, Bangladesh, Turkiye, Thailand, and Japan, while blocking US- and Israeli-linked vessels, and in some cases imposing transit fees reaching $2 million to some, while granting waivers to allied or negotiated ships.
Pakistan is treated as a “non-hostile” partner, with its vessels granted passage through coordination and security clearance rather than fees imposed.
Thailand recently secured free passage for an oil tanker after direct coordination with Tehran. The Islamic Republic stated that “non-hostile vessels” may transit and affirmed that “Friends have a special place.”
Gulf states heavily reliant on the waterway, including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar, face mounting risks of supply shortages and price increases.
Pakistan has emerged as one of the few countries able to navigate the strait, recently sending a Pakistan-flagged vessel carrying crude through the corridor, elevating Islamabad’s role as both a supplier and a potential intermediary in the war.
Pakistan is facing its own internal strain, with fuel shortages triggering austerity measures aimed at easing pressure on domestic supplies, including reduced work schedules and temporary school closures.
Officials said coordination with Gulf countries is ongoing, with exporter databases established and business-to-business engagements underway.
Sharif warned that delays in execution would not be tolerated, stressing continuous monitoring of domestic supply and demand.
Pakistan’s approach reflects a balancing act between domestic stability, regional demand, and its ties with both Iran and Gulf partners as supply chains remain under pressure.
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Allies Don’t Need Lobbies
By Jay Knott | Dissident Voice | September 24, 2013
In a recent article on Counterpunch, Rob Urie defended the traditional Marxist analysis of US policy in the Middle East. He argues that support for Israel is driven primarily by economic interest, not the Jewish lobby.
He starts by paying tribute to the idea that Western societies are uniquely racist. He says that the “Western narrative” claims there is an “Arab character”, and that this is “antique racist blather”. He gives no definition of these terms. Further, he establishes his credentials as part of the dominant current in the American left by claiming that “over a million people in Iraq died so ‘we’ in the West can drive SUVs.”1
When he tries to criticize bourgeois economics, he makes it clear he doesn’t understand the developments it has made since Marx’s day, using the mathematical discipline known as “game theory”. He dismisses the basic abstraction of economic theory, the idea of the rational individual, on the grounds that it is “devoid of history, culture and political context”. But abstractions are always devoid of something.
He defends a more concrete economic theory, mostly Marxist, with some input from another theorist of capitalist crisis, Hyman Minsky. This concrete theory leads him to the view that US activity in the Middle East is primarily driven by rational capitalist motives, the need to secure a supply of oil.
“Taking the totality of circumstance — former oil company executives launching war on an oil rich nation on a pretext they publicly proclaimed they didn’t believe shortly before taking office — and that upon launching their war proved to be non-existent, requires a willingness to overlook the obvious — that the war on Iraq was for oil, that is difficult to support.”1
Perhaps I’ve misunderstood him, but based on what he says in the rest of the article, this convoluted sentence seems to argue that, because president Bush and vice-president Cheney attacked Iraq on false premises, and they also said it was all about oil, and they are former oil executives, and Iraq has a lot of oil, it’s difficult to deny US attacks on Iraq are all about oil.
In fact, it’s not hard at all. As Urie points out, at times Bush and co. said that attacking Iraq was “protecting the world’s supply of oil.”1 But, as he also points out, they are congenital liars. Why should we believe them when they say they are trying to “protect” the oil supply? Protect it against what? When politicians “admit” attacks on Middle Eastern countries are wars for oil, they are parroting the neo-con party line, feeding the public, both left and right, with a plausible-sounding pretext. For right-wingers, “it’s a war for oil” is a reason to support war, and for leftists, it’s a way to feel better by complaining impotently about corporate greed. Both approaches help the war drive. … continue
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