Iran Protests at China over Using False Name for Persian Gulf
News number: 8908221547 16:22 | 2010-11-13
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8908221547

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian embassy in Beijing voiced strong protest against
China's use of the false phrase 'the Arabian Gulf' instead of 'the Persian
Gulf' during the inauguration ceremony of the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou.

Iranian Ambassador to Beijing Mehdi Safari in a letter to the Chinese
Foreign Ministry announced Iran's protest at the move.

"The Iranian authorities, including the head of the physical education
organization as well as head and secretary of Iran's national Olympic
committee, have also protested at the use of the (fake) name the Arabian
Gulf in the inauguration ceremony of the 16th edition of Asian Games," a
part of the letter said.

While historical documents show that the waterway has always been referred
to as the 'Persian Gulf', certain countries deliberately or mistakenly
remove the word 'Persian' from the name of the waterway.

Iran designated April 30 as the National Persian Gulf Day to highlight the
fact that the waterway has been referred to by historians and ancient texts
as 'Persian' since the Achaemenid Empire was established in what is now
modern day Iran.

In July 2009, archeological excavations in the Iranian port city of Siraf
yielded new evidence confirming the antiquity of the Persian Gulf title.

The Iranian archeologists discovered Sassanid and early-Islamic residential
strata as well as a number of intact amphoras used in sea trade during the
Parthian, Abbasid and early Islamic eras, all referring to the waterway as
the Persian Gulf.