Differing Prespectives on the Naming of the Arabian Gulf

The Iranian official position intermittently triggers a controversy in the media about the name of the “Arabian Gulf”. The issue is not confined to insisting on marking the Gulf as Persian, but goes beyond the name to include nationalist dimensions and political implications centered on the pursuit of regional hegemony. Accordingly, the Arab stance towards this dispute should not stop at the debate on the name of the Arabian Gulf, but must be based on the fact that that Arab identity of the Gulf constitutes an essential component of the regional identity of the population of the Arabian Gulf. The scope of this study is beyond the heated debate about the differences in the name, and aims to discuss the geographical, historical, nationalist and political dimensions in the naming of the Arabian Gulf.