DP World: A Front for the Expansion of Israeli Geopolitical Influence?

🔴**DP World: A Front for the Expansion of Israeli Geopolitical Influence?**

By Dr. Jamal Wakim — December 16, 2025

Following normalization, DP World has been transformed into a regional–international platform for indirect Israeli influence over ports with high geopolitical sensitivity.

The growing role of DP World, owned by the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, has increasingly come to the fore. The company has become one of the world’s largest port operators, currently managing around 80 ports and terminals across more than forty countries. This expansion has coincided with a shift in the geopolitical role of the United Arab Emirates—from a state operating under Saudi tutelage to a player seeking a distinct regional role, particularly in the western basin of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

**Emirati–Israeli Cooperation After 2020**

The significance of this role increased markedly after the normalization agreements with “Israel” in 2020. These agreements prompted observers to question DP World’s indirect role in enabling “Israel” to penetrate economically and security-wise into countries where DP World operates ports and facilities. This is especially the case given that normalization coincided with an expansion of logistical and security partnerships between the UAE and “Israel,” particularly in port management, maritime shipping security, surveillance technologies, and logistical data analysis.

After 2020, Israeli companies operating in maritime shipping—such as Dover Tower, ShipIn, and ZIM—signed agreements with Emirati companies affiliated with DP World that operate in shipping and maritime transport. These agreements included the operation of joint Emirati–Israeli shipping lines, the development of AI-based port monitoring technologies, the exchange of data on vessel and cargo movements, and undeclared cooperation in maritime security.

Western research centers such as RAND and INSS argue that the UAE has come to serve as a façade used by “Israel” as a secure transit point to expand its influence in sensitive ports in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, such as the ports of Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia, in addition to ports near the Bab al-Mandab Strait and others in the Eastern Mediterranean.

**Access to Indian, Red Sea, and Yemeni Ports**

In this context, “Israel” has come to use the UAE to access ports it cannot reach directly for several reasons, including the absence of political sensitivity among African and Arab states toward the UAE comparable to that toward “Israel,” as well as the UAE’s vast financial capabilities—capabilities that “Israel” lacks. This is in addition to the appealing slogans promoted by DP World, such as development and investment, alongside the absence of a declared Emirati political project, unlike the openly stated domination strategy pursued by “Israel.”

DP World has thus become a gateway for Israeli companies to access a large number of Indian ports managed by DP World, such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Nhava Sheva), India’s largest port, and Mundra Port. It is worth noting that India’s Adani Group maintains strategic partnerships with “Israel” and operates the Port of Haifa following its privatization.

Accordingly, a trilateral partnership among “Israel,” the UAE, and India has emerged, consolidating an integrated relationship: the UAE provides capital and port networks; “Israel” provides technology and port security; and India provides a dominant geopolitical location deep within the Indian Ocean, one of the most important axes of global maritime transport. Consequently, Emirati expansion in Indian ports has become a bridge for expanding Israeli maritime influence in the Indian Ocean.

For a long time, “Israel” has set its sights on controlling Bab al-Mandab. Since 2015, the UAE has become the most influential actor in Yemeni ports, particularly Mukalla, Mocha, Balhaf, Socotra, Mayun, and even Aden before being forced out.

As a result of the strategic partnership between “Israel” and DP World, Tel Aviv has secured for itself a logistical and intelligence presence at Bab al-Mandab, enabling it to monitor maritime traffic—especially Iranian vessels—and allowing it to establish a forward strategic line toward Asia. The American magazine __Foreign Policy__ has published reports on Emirati–Israeli intelligence cooperation, particularly on Yemen’s Socotra Island and on Mayun.

**Israel’s Eye on Egypt and Africa**

African ports are of particular interest to “Israel,” which seeks access to them—especially in East Africa—via DP World, which manages a large number of African ports.

The Emirati company previously managed the Port of Djibouti, the Port of Assab in Eritrea (which it used as a logistical base for military operations against Yemen), and the Port of Berbera in Somaliland, in addition to managing several ports in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and even Senegal in West Africa.

These states form part of “Israel’s” strategy to counter Iran’s attempts to expand its alliances in Africa and to monitor maritime traffic in the Red Sea. Accordingly, the expansion of the UAE’s presence in these ports grants “Israel” a long-term logistical base of influence and the opportunity to establish maritime intelligence centers capable of monitoring the flow of goods from Asia to Africa.

The danger becomes particularly pronounced when discussing Egypt, which remains “Israel’s” primary strategic adversary despite five decades having passed since the signing of a peace agreement between the two countries.

Through DP World, “Israel” seeks to expand its influence in Egyptian ports, particularly those in the Suez region. Notably, DP World has been seeking since 2006 to expand its investments in Suez ports, having acquired management of Ain Sokhna Port and established strategic partnerships within the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Following Emirati–Israeli normalization, Egyptian concerns have intensified regarding the UAE, due to DP World’s security ties with “Israel.” Egypt fears Israeli intentions to create alternatives to the Suez Canal—such as the Haifa–Gulf railway line—and views the UAE as a Trojan horse through which Israeli influence could penetrate and control Egyptian supply chains, posing a serious threat to Egypt’s national security.

**Eastern Mediterranean Ports**

“Israel” is not content with exploiting DP World to penetrate ports in India, Africa, Yemen, and Egypt; it also aspires to control ports in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Lebanon and Syria.

Since Israeli companies cannot directly invest in Lebanese and Syrian ports—given that both countries remain formally at war with “Israel”—they seek to control the ports of Beirut, Tartus, and Latakia through DP World, which has proposed projects to rehabilitate these ports after the extensive damage caused by prolonged wars and, in Beirut’s case, by the massive explosion of August 4, 2020.

DP World is seeking concessions to rehabilitate these ports, while “Israel” aims to exploit this process to ensure security penetration of the ports in order to monitor cargo movements, prevent Iranian logistical supplies from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon, and assert security control over the supply chains of two countries that have been among the most persistent in confronting “Israel” over the past six decades.

It is worth noting that DP World attempted to enter Lebanon beginning in 2018 through management contracts for the ports of Beirut and Tripoli. After the 2020 Beirut port explosion, calls emerged to privatize the port, and DP World was the first company to submit a request to purchase shares.

This move, however, was opposed by some forces allied with Hezbollah, who feared the UAE’s ties with “Israel” would enable the transfer of data from the ports of Beirut and Tripoli to “Israel,” potentially exposing the movement of people and goods linked to Hezbollah and allowing such information to be used against the party.

**A Front for “Israel”?**

DP World constitutes an ideal front for “Israel” because it possesses a global network of relationships that “Israel” itself cannot easily acquire due to many states’ diplomatic sensitivity toward the entity.

Moreover, the UAE’s position as a neutral financial–logistical hub facilitates the penetration of Israeli influence without raising suspicion in the states targeted by Tel Aviv for intelligence expansion. In addition, cooperation between “Israel” and DP World facilitates Israeli intelligence activities through artificial intelligence across a large number of states, while also benefiting from the UAE’s involvement in regional conflicts such as Yemen and the Horn of Africa in ways that serve Israeli strategic interests.

It is also noteworthy that there is strategic alignment between the objectives of “Israel” and those of the UAE. Abu Dhabi seeks to establish a ports empire, particularly in the western basin of the Indian Ocean, while “Israel” aims to control supply chains from Asia to the Mediterranean.

It can therefore be said that, following normalization, DP World has become a regional–international platform for indirect Israeli influence over ports of high geopolitical sensitivity.

This influence is not exercised through the raising of the “Israeli” flag or the direct presence of Israeli companies, but through port acquisitions, supply-chain management, the deployment of Israeli security technologies, and the exchange of maritime data. Taken together, these elements have granted “Israel,” for the first time in its history, a maritime geopolitical expansion stretching from the Strait of Hormuz in the east to East Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean in the west.

➡️**Source** ([click here](https://raiakhar.com/5225/))

**🔵**[Link to the article in Arabic ](https://t.me/almuraqb/314)