Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would make a decision on how the US government would be referred to all of the water now commonly known as the Persian Gulf during his visit to the Arab States next week.
Trump told the White House journalists, which he expects to make his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates question him about the United States, officially calling the navigable path of the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia.
“They will ask me questions about it when I get there, and I will have to make a decision,” said Trump. “I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that two US officials familiar with the case said Trump would announce the change when he was traveling. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
This report has generated a storm of an outcry by Iranians from all the political persuas which said that the nickname of the Persian Gulf had thousands of years and an essential part of the cultural and geographic history of Iran.
This occurs for months after Trump said the United States refers to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
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“I have a case here. This is called Gulf of America,” Trump said at the Oval office on Wednesday. “And I guess many people get us ideas.”
The Arab nations have long prompted the geographical name of the body of water off the southern coast of Iran, while Iran has maintained its historical links with the Gulf.
The Iranians are both favorable and opposed to the current government of Iran denounced any change.
The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abbas Araghchi, who was involved in three cycles of nuclear negotiations with Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that the change would indicate a “hostile intention” towards Iran.
“The attempts at political motivation to modify the historically established name of the Persian Gulf are indicative of a hostile intention towards Iran and its people, and are firmly condemned,” he wrote on the social platform X. “Any short-lived step on this subject will have no legal or geographic validity or persuasion, it will only the end of all the Walks and the political persuasion Iran, the United States and the United States. “.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran who was dismissed in the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and is an ardent adversary of the current government, also denounced the measure.
“The Persian Gulf is not only a name but a historical reality,” he said in an article on social networks. “The decision reported by President Trump to repeal history, if it is true, is an affront to the Iranian people and our great civilization.”
The Persian Gulf has been widely known by this name since the 16th century, although the use of the “Gulf of Arabia” and the “Arab Gulf” is dominant in many countries in the Middle East. The Government of Iran – formerly Persian – threatened to continue Google in 2012 for the company’s decision not to label the body of water on its cards.
On Google Maps in the United States, the body of water appears as the Persian Gulf (Arab Gulf). Apple cards only say the Persian Gulf.
The American army for years has used the Persian Gulf in the statements and images it publishes.
Trump can change the name for official ends of the United States, but he cannot dictate what the rest of the world calls him.
The Associated Press continued the Trump administration earlier this year after the White House prevented its journalists from covering most
The writers of the Associated Press Zeke Miller in Washington, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Meg Kinnard in Chapin, in South Carolina, contributed to this report.