Thousands Of Trucks Haul Iraq’s Oil Through Syria In Sign Of Hormuz Legacy

By Archie Hunter, Anthony Di Paola, Khalid Al-Ansary and Nicholas Lua

Jul 18, 2026 (Bloomberg) –Iraq is using a vast fleet of trucks to carry fuel oil through Syria and reroute flows away from the Strait of Hormuz, rapidly transforming its neighbor into the Middle East’s top export hub.

In just months, Syria has gone from shipping none of the fuel to making up more than a quarter of Middle Eastern volumes. The supplies are arriving on thousands of trucks that can take about four days to reach Syria’s Mediterranean ports, and highlight how the Iran war is reshaping the region’s