Wafric News – May 8, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted he may rename the long-disputed “Persian Gulf” during his upcoming trip to key Gulf nations — a move likely to reignite tensions between Arab states and Iran.

Speaking to reporters from the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he expects the subject to come up as he visits Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16. It will be his first visit to the region since returning to the Oval Office.

“I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said when asked if he would announce a new U.S. position on the name of the strategic waterway. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I don’t know if feelings are going to be hurt.”

The former president added that he would receive a full briefing before making an official statement, saying, “I’ll make a decision.”

U.S. media reports suggest that Trump is considering officially switching the U.S. stance to favor “Arabian Gulf” or “Gulf of Arabia,” aligning with the terminology used by several Arab allies. Such a shift would mark a stark departure from long-standing U.S. policy, which has traditionally used “Persian Gulf.”

The naming of the Gulf has long been a flashpoint in regional geopolitics. Iran insists that “Persian Gulf” is the correct historical and legal name, backed by centuries of maps and documents. Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Iraq often use “Arabian Gulf” — a term Tehran sees as a challenge to its national identity.

The issue has flared up in the past. In 2023, Iran summoned Iraq’s ambassador over the “Arabian Gulf Cup,” and back in 2012, it even threatened to sue Google for omitting the name of the waterway on its maps.

Reacting to the latest reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi called any potential renaming “an open insult to all Iranians” and warned of public backlash. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Araghchi slammed the rumored shift as “a hostile act” and said it would provoke “the wrath of all Iranians from all walks of life.”

“Let’s hope these absurd rumours about the PERSIAN Gulf are nothing more than a disinformation campaign from warmongers who never sleep,” he added.

Trump has a history of provocative naming decisions. In one of his first acts after returning to office, he signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

All eyes will be on the former president’s upcoming trip, where diplomacy, symbolism, and semantics may collide on the global stage once again.


By WafricNews Desk.