REPORTAGE. "We’re safe here, right?" : these residents of the Strait of Hormuz tell how their daily lives have been reorganized

It has been the epicenter of international tensions for more than two months. The Strait of Hormuz was once again the scene of strikes on Thursday, May 7, between the United States and Iran, weakening the ceasefire. Donald Trump affirmed that he still held out, while Tehran accuses Washington of having raped him after American strikes against “Iranian military installations” in response to an attack on three American ships. How do we live near the Strait of Hormuz? From the United Arab Emirates, franceinfo got as close as possible.

Ras el Khaimah, an hour and a half drive from Dubai, on the northern border of this emirate, is only 55 kilometers from the strait. Since the start of the war, fishermen have been collateral victims of the Battle of Hormuz. “It is forbidden to go beyond 10 kilometers, laments Viran, an Indian in his fifties. No more fishing trips lasting several days off the coast of Iran, no more big fish…“

His boss pays him according to what the fishing brings in, in short, “business is bad”. In the market, resellers are also looking grim: “The stalls are busy, but there are no customers, the fish restaurants are empty, people, even locals, no longer come as before”laments a merchant.

Direction the eastern coast of the Strait of Hormuz, via the Ras el Khaimah-Fujaira axis, on one side, the desert, and on the other, bare mountains. The road makes it possible to bypass the blockade and transport the goods. It is used by dozens of heavy goods vehicles.

Who says strategic axis, says scrambled GPS, to avoid drone and missile attacks. Blue and white checkered turban on his head, a young Sikh drives one of these heavy goods vehicles. It transports unloaded containers, since they cannot cross the strait by sea, to Khor Fakkan, the UAE’s largest cargo port on the eastern coast.

The young driver says he spent up to 18 hours stuck in traffic, making him a potential target. “It’s my job, I’m focused on my work, I’m not afraid, he assures, I think first of my salary”, the equivalent of 400 euros per month and 10% more for agreeing to travel back and forth. He returned from Saudi Arabia where he transported a container of medicines. “We drive 10 days in a row, asks the driver. In Saudi Arabia, it’s hard, nothing is planned for the drivers, you can’t even take a shower and change… But here, in the Emirates, it’s okay, I sleep when things don’t progress.” He’s been behind the wheel for ten hours straight.

Arriving on the coast, the strait is in sight. In an almost empty hotel, there is a diving center. “We’re in the Strait of Hormuz. Come, look, we’re safe here, right?says a professor. Are you afraid? Before, we saw a lot of boats, but now they are gone.”reports a man. The diving teacher therefore goes to sea with a tourist. “When the war began, access to the sea was prohibited, he explains. Last weekend it opened. But on Monday, something happened again. It’s closed. The next day it reopened. Well, we follow the rules…”

The incident in question on Monday was the strike on the oil port of Fujairah, attributed to the Iranians. Dozens of giant reservoirs are visible from the road, the entrances and exits are, obviously, filtered, any GPS signal jammed, again, within a radius of 15 kilometers. Everyone saw the fire, but no one spoke. As someone familiar with the country sums it up: “Here, people are not afraid of home attacks, they are afraid of losing their jobs and being evicted.”