DOHA, 21 Sept. - (ANA) - US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s assessment that the Strait of Hormuz will be “a worthless piece of water” in two years is wrong, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Al Kaabi said. 

 

“I mean, maybe this is his view. I think this is completely wrong,” Mr Al Kaabi said at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York.

 

Mr Bessent made his remark on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting on September 1, saying the strait – a chokepoint for global energy shipments from the Gulf – would become less important as countries work on pipelines to bypass it after facing a blockade imposed by Iran when it was attacked by the US and Israel in February. 

 

Mr Al Kaabi said the strait was a vital transit venue for all kinds of trade beyond oil and gas. “If this is brought up again, I can repeat it to anybody that I don’t think this is ever going to be obsolete.”

 

Unlike other countries affected by the blockade, Qatar is not planning to build pipelines to bypass Hormuz and is “only going to be using the strait”, he said.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/21 September 2026 - - -