Iraq restarts Gulf shipping with Basrah shuttle as a tanker burns off Al Faw
The 900 teu Basrah links Jebel Ali and Umm Qasr for the first time in more than 50 years, but still has to transit the Strait of Hormuz
Iraq has resumed commercial shipping in the Gulf with a ship of its own after a gap of more than 50 years. The container ship Basrah left Jebel Ali on 21 October on a new route to Umm Qasr, Iraq's main container port. Iraq's Ministry of Transport says Iraqi cargo ships stopped trading regularly in the Gulf in the mid-1960s. The first sailing had been planned for 15 October.
Iraqi Maritime Line runs the ship on an eight-day shuttle between the two ports. Basrah was built in 2014 and has been operated by Iraq since; she is 143 metres long, of 17,787 dwt, carries about 900 teu and is registered in Jordan. Her AIS gave Kuwait as the destination, but the ministry says the service runs from Jebel Ali to Umm Qasr. It was ordered by Transport Minister Wahab Salman Mohammed as part of a plan to rebuild national shipping services.
Does the service avoid Hormuz?
It does not. Every voyage between Jebel Ali and Umm Qasr still passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Since the conflict began, carriers have routed Iraqi cargo around the strait instead. Maersk opened landbridge routes from Aqaba, CMA CGM serves southern Iraq via Aqaba and the north via Mersin in Turkey, and Hapag-Lloyd proposed in July discharging at Khorfakkan and trucking boxes across the UAE to feeders at Sharjah or Jebel Ali. Aqaba handled 37,182 transit containers bound for Iraq in the first seven months of 2026, against 3,599 a year earlier, a rise of 933%, the Jordan Shipping Association says.
What is happening off Al Faw?
The waters off Iraq have become a target zone. On 26 October UKMTO received several reports of a ship on fire about 60 nautical miles south-east of Al Faw, inside Iraq's exclusive economic zone, and had no further details on the vessel. On 21 October a master had told UKMTO late that a tanker was hit by an unknown projectile 30 nautical miles south-east of Al Faw; Iraq did not confirm it.
Obsidian Risk Advisors counts the 26 October fire as the tenth suspected Iranian strike on a ship since the start of October, and the strikes are moving well north-west of Hormuz, beyond the reach of US air cover in the strait. Iran's IRGC Navy separately claimed that four vessels involved in what it called illegal oil transfers in the northern Gulf were hit and set on fire, and that three more struck mines west of Hormuz; none of the ships was named and the claims have not been confirmed. War risk premiums and tanker rates remain very high, and Brent crude is trading near $115 a barrel.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 28 October 2026.
