During the late Precambrian, the terranes of the Arabian and adjoining plates were fused along the northeastern flank of the African plate in Gondwanaland. This phase, which ended approximately 640 to 620 Ma, was followed by continental failure (620 to 580 Ma) and intracontinental extension (600 to approximately 550 Ma). During the Infracambrian extensional phase, a triple junction may have evolved near the Sinai Peninsula and may have consisted of the (1) Jordan Valley and Dead Sea rift branch, (2) Sinai and North Egypt rift branch, and (3) the Najd wrench-rift branch. The Najd, Hawasina, and Zagros fault systems may have been transverse faults that accompanied rifting in the Arabian Gulf and Zagros Mountains, southern Oman, Pakistan, and Kerman in central Iran.

While the area was extending and subsiding, the Tethys Ocean flooded the eastern side of the Arabian plate and Iran and deposited calcareous clastics, carbonates, and evaporites (including the Hormuz and Ara halites). This transgression extended into the western part of the Arabian plate via the Najd rift system. The termination of the extensional phase during the late Early Cambrian was accompanied by a major regression and terrestrial conditions on the Arabian Peninsula. However, by the Early Ordovician, as sea level peaked to a highstand, the Arabian plate was blanketed with marginal marine sediments.