Iran’s Zarif Hits Back at US Navy over Misnaming of Persian Gulf
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took a swipe at the US Navy’s officials over the misnaming of the Persian Gulf, saying the waters in southern Iran have had this name for 2,000 years, “longer than US has existed”.
“US Navy can’t seem to find its way around our waters. Perhaps because it hasn’t figured out its name: Persian Gulf, as it's been called for 2,000 yrs longer than US has existed,” Zarif said on his Twitter account on Friday.
“Or maybe it (the US Navy) doesn't know what it's doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home,” he added in his tweet.
The remarks came several hours after the chief spokesman for US Central Command used a wrong name for the Persian Gulf.
"We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian (sic) Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways," William Urban told CNN.
The name of the body of water separating the Iranian plateau from the Arabian Peninsula, is historically and internationally known as the Persian Gulf, named after the land of Persia or Iran. For years some Arab States have disputed historical and legal evidence of the name of the Persian Gulf.
More than 20% of world’s oil and 35% of oil traded by sea passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making the Persian Gulf region one of the most highly important strategic places in the world for international trade. In addition, the three Persian Gulf Islands of the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Mussa are also located here and are part of Iran’s sovereignty.
For thousands of years, world maps from ancient times dating as far as 500 BC to the present have all been referring to this body of water as the Persian Gulf.
