Persian Gulf Symbol of Regional Peace, Friendship: Iran’s Foreign Ministry

The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday to mark the National Persian Gulf Day, which falls on the 10th day of the Iranian month of Ordibehesht (April 30).

What follows is the text of the statement, released by the Foreign Ministry’s website:

“Throughout the history of the region, which has been full of ups and downs, the Persian Gulf, this civilization-making span of water, has constantly been named the Persian Gulf or called by its equivalents in all foreign languages.

From millennia B.C. up until now, the Persian Gulf has always been referred to with the same ancient name or the ‘Persian Sea’ in a variety of books, travelogues, documents, maps, historical researches, and numerous international documents written in different languages. Historians and researchers have emphatically used the same name particularly in credible Islamic and Arabic sources of reference.

While laying emphasis on the policy of neighborliness, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran hopes that this body of water will be a sanctuary of regional security and stability as well as a symbol of peace, friendship and co-existence among regional nations, and that others will respect the establishment of peace and security in the Persian Gulf by the littoral states.

We offer congratulations to all Iranians and those who have done their utmost to safeguard this soil and its waters on this great occasion, which is reminiscent of the expulsion of colonialists from the region, and pay tribute to the honorable martyrs of the Persian Gulf.”