After the Gulf of Mexico/America dustup, another basin is getting the Donald Trump treatment. The president announced that with his visit to Saudi Arabia scheduled for next week, the Persian Gulf’s name will change to “Arabian Gulf” or “Gulf of Arabia,” challenging Iran’s historic claim. The move is the latest effort by the administration to strengthen the relationship with the rest of the Gulf states, following billion dollar investments in Arab crypto and real estate projects announced by the Trump family last week.
Since the 16th century, Iran, formerly Persia, has titled the Persian Gulf area. To break away, many Middle Eastern countries began calling it the Gulf of Arabia. Over time, Tehran has tried to claim the title by threatening to sue Google in 2012 for its decision not to label the basin in any way. The tech giant’s maps now appear with the new title added in parentheses. This stands in contrast with Apple, which chose to keep only “Persian Gulf” on its maps program.
More recently, in 2017, during his first term in the White House, Trump had referred to the area as the “Gulf of Arabia,” and drawing a sharp response from Iran. Then-President Hassan Rouhani had suggested that the American president “should have studied geography,” while former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had accused him of being corrupt: “we all knew that Trump’s friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. Now we know that his geography is too.”
The reaction was equally strong this time, as soon as Trump made his statement, the Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi’s responded: “The name Persian Gulf, like many geographical designations, is deeply rooted in human history. The use of these names does not imply ownership by any particular nation, but rather reflects a shared respect for the collective heritage of humanity. In contrast, politically motivated attempts to alter the historically established name of the Persian Gulf are indicative of hostile intent toward Iran and its people, and are firmly condemned.”
Since returning to the White House for his second term, Trump has announced that the United States would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Mount Denali in Alaska (the name given to it by the indigenous Koyukon people) to Mount McKinley.
