Describing as a fool's errand attempts to use a fake name for the Persian Gulf, a top adviser to Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei commented on the underlying motives for such an effort.
Any alternation in the name of the sea would violate the "identity", "sovereignty" and "territorial integrity" of the Islamic Republic, Ali Akbar Velayati was reported as saying by ISNA, attending an unveiling ceremony for the illustrated book "Persian Gulf" on Sunday.
According to Velayati, the UK was the first entity to use "the Gulf" in reference to the Persian Gulf, with Arab countries, the US and Israel toeing its line later on, using the fabricated title "Arabian Gulf".
"In the historic works left from ancient Greece, this body of water is named the Persian Gulf and in addition to that whoever wrote a book on the history or the geopolitics of this region has referred to this area as the Persian Gulf," reiterated the former foreign minister.
"Why is it that they insist on using this fake name instead of the Persian Gulf," Velayati said, adding that the fake name is actually the preamble for a bigger project to distort the Persian identity of the sea to an Arab one for political purposes.
Pointing out the strategic significance of the waterway, Velayati said that "geopolitical experts believe that the state that dominates the Persian Gulf will eventually dominate the Indian Ocean as well."
A UN report published in 2006 confirmed "Persian Gulf" as the standard geographical designation for this body of water.
