Iran's threat to airlines

In a new bullying tactic by the Islamic Republic, Iran has threatened all airlines that do not refer to the block of water South of its lands as "Persian Gulf" with grounding of their planes. The following article in the words of seasoned writer Loveday Morris of The National explains more.

This has serious implications on many airlines connecting Iran with the rest of civilisation. The threat extends to airlines using the neutral term "The Gulf" as well. Notice the threatening use of language from Tehran, implying that by using a name such as "Persian Gulf", they have some kind of right over the Arab states that surround it. ABIT like England claiming part of France since it overlooks the English Channel.

“The airlines of the southern Persian Gulf flying to Iran are warned to use the term Persian Gulf on their electronic display boards,” said Mr Hamid Behbahani (Iran's Transport Minister), according to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency."

This blog has always asserted that the world historically called the body of water Persian, and that the Arab states would probably continue calling it Persian if it weren't for Iran's increasingly hostile stance towards its Muslim neighbours since the 1960s. Very ironic given that it's the region's only "Islamic Republic".

All these word fights are happening while Israel silently tests a drone that can fly to Iran. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8527268.stm. Notice even the BBC calls it "The Gulf".

Forget for a second typical Israeli fear for their own lives (they sent live pilots into Iraq in the early 1980s to destroy their nuclear plants) by sending drones. However, Israel is a serious threat, whilst Iran's bark is most likely more threatening than its bite.



http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100223/NATIONAL/702229806/1041

Iran's threat to airlines

Loveday Morris

* Last Updated: February 23. 2010 12:20AM UAE / February 22. 2010 8:20PM GMT

Iran has demanded all in-flight mentions of the waterway to use the "Persian Gulf" or airlines risk being banned from Iranian airspace. Jumana El Heloueh / Reuters

Iran has warned airlines that fail to use the term “Persian Gulf” on their in-flight monitors that they will be banned from the Islamic Republic’s airspace, which could have an impact on UAE-based carriers.

Hamid Behbahani, Iran’s transport minister, has demanded an apology from the Iranian airline Kish Air after one of its stewards referred to the Arabian Gulf during a recent flight.

The minister described the term as “bogus” and went on to threaten other airlines.

“The airlines of the southern Persian Gulf flying to Iran are warned to use the term Persian Gulf on their electronic display boards,” said Mr Behbahani, according to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency.

“If the airlines aren’t willing, they will be forbidden to fly in Iranian airspace for a month on the first violation, and upon repetition the aircraft will be grounded in Iran and flight permits to Iran will be revoked.”

A spokeswoman for Emirates Airline, who declined to be named, said the airline tries not to use either term.

“In our in-flight magazine and on our website, the area in question has not been labelled, as the focus is on our destination cities,” the Emirates spokeswoman said.

She could not confirm how the area was referred to on in-flight route-mapping displays, or whether the airline had been contacted by Iranian authorities. The airline operates 21 weekly flights to Tehran.

Etihad Airways and Air Arabia could not provide comment yesterday.

A Greek air steward for Kish Air was fired and given 20 days to leave the country after he used the term Arabian Gulf on a Tehran-bound flight earlier this week. The unnamed flight attendant threatened to detain passengers when they complained of his use of the term, according to IRNA.

Noufal Mohammed, the manager of Kish Air’s Dubai office, declined to comment on the incident.

The name of the waterway has been a source of contention between Iran and the Arab countries that border it for decades.

It is referred to as the Persian Gulf on most maps and documents published before 1960, but Arab states argue it should be known as the Arabian Gulf, since most of the countries that surround it are Arab ones.

Some people and organisations avoid either name and refer to the area simply as “the Gulf”. But even that is often met with anger in Iran, which often cites the United Nations endorsement of the term “Persian Gulf” for the body of water.

Dr Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a politics professor at UAE University, said he did not think much would come of the threat, which he described as “bullying”.

“It’s a non-issue that Iran is trying to make into a political issue,” he said. “There are much more important issues to attend to in the region.”

lmorris@thenational.ae

Al Jazeerah on The Gulf

When researching some facts for my previous posts I stumbled upon an article written by Al Jazeerah (in English) that I thought deserved a bit of thought. The article is about the naming dispute between the Arabs and Iranians on the Arabian/Persian Gulf.

Title:The Dispute About the Persian/Arabian Gulf Name: How Should it Be Resolved?

By Hassan El-Najjar and Nader Habibi

Al-Jazeerah, February 11, 2005



I really liked how both writers, although Arabs, had a very impartial views and wrote in a very fair and academic way about the topic. Such writing is rarely seen these days. Either the Iranians would very aggressively argue that it's always been the Persian Gulf (why not Iranian gulf?) or the Arabs would continue using Arabian Gulf just to piss off Iran.

Either way, it's not a simple topic and there are many historical factors behind this conflict. In addition the current geo-political situation in the Gulf is such that it makes such a naming contest much more important than it really is. So we should try to find a solution to it that agrees to both sides, and that fits in with other problems such as Iranian nuclear ambitions and Iran's occupation of the 3 Emarati islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb.

To keep matters brief, I will not paste the whole article, yet I strongly advise you to read it whether you're Persian, Arab, or just curious about the Gulf. The Article:

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2005%20Editorials/January-February/The%20Dispute%20About%20the%20Persian%20Arabian%20Gulf%20Name%20How%20Should%20it%20Be%20Resolved%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar%20and%20Nader%20Habibi.htm

Personally I never seen much point to highlight one's differences as opposed to one's similarities. We have a lot of things that bind us with our Iranian neighbours up North. We should be proud of these links and work to make them stronger. I really do not mind calling it the Persian Gulf or even the Islamic Gulf (as proposed by the Ayatollah) if we get some of our rights back as Arabs. After all, there are 22 Arabic countries in the world but just one Persian country. Looking at things with a global view mean it would make sense to call it Persian because it would pinpoint the location better. Imagine having a similar Gulf in between some Latin American countries, and they called it the Latino Gulf, that would really confuse me as an outsider as to where its position is.

Usually the smaller nation wins in these areas. Also look at the Sea of Japan. Japan is much smaller than China, and yet I believe it's called after Japan because it pinpoints it better on the map. The Irish sea is another example. As Arabs we should be realistic and flexible without letting go of our rights of sovereignty and security in our seas. Resolving this issue would benefit both the Arab and Persian peoples greatly.

The Arabian Gulf

This piece appeared in today's Gulf News by the infamous Khalaf al Habtoor. He could have argued a bit better for our cause, and mentioned the 3 occupied island that belong to the UAE. However, it's a good piece and deserves a mention.

Viva la UAE!

http://www.gulfnews.com/opinion/columns/gulf/10343343.html

It's the Arabian Gulf - and that's that

By Khalaf Al Habtoor, Special to Gulf News
Published: August 25, 2009, 23:03

The gentle water that laps off the shores of the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq and Iran has become a source of contention. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet but it certainly irks most people in this part of the world when outsiders invariably refer to the Arabian Gulf as the Persian Gulf. Those of us who grew up here swam in the Arabian Gulf as children and were told that the big ships we could see in the distance were sailing through the Arabian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. And, today, most tourists who flock here from every corner of the globe do not consider themselves visitors to the Persian Gulf.

It may be true that pre-1960s maps and treaties made reference to this body of water as the Persian Gulf in the same way that many ancient European maps referred to the Red Sea as Sinus Arabicus or Arabian Gulf. But let's fast forward to the 21st century. Today, there are several reasons why the international community and its cartographers should officially recognise 'Arabian Gulf'.

The first is obvious. Persia hasn't existed since 1935 and, therefore, does not appear on modern maps. So, by saying Persian Gulf we are implicitly attributing domination of this 24,000 square kilometre body of water to a long gone era.

Secondly, the modern-day Islamic Republic of Iran is just one of eight countries that share this waterway, with all the rest being Arab. Moreover, many Iranians who live near Iran's southern coastline are ethnically Arab or Arabic speakers.

Thirdly, we are living during a time when countries in the Gulf have attained unprecedented geopolitical and economic clout, which should be recognised.

Fourthly, history notwithstanding, there are numerous examples of countries, cities and seas undergoing a name change to reflect the contemporary status quo. For instance, Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe, the Gold Coast became Ghana, Burma changed its name to Myanmar and Bombay is now known as Mumbai.

You may be interested to know that the Romans called the Mediterranean Mare Nostrum or 'Our Sea', while the ancient Greeks called the Atlantic Ocean Oceanus, but you don't find present-day Italians and Greeks up in arms about the name change.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for our good friends the Iranians. They are hanging on to the 'Persian Gulf' like a mother lion defending her cubs. In 2004, hundreds of organised Iranian bloggers and webmasters launched what is called a 'Google bomb' and were successful in manipulating the Google search engine so that each time anyone searched for 'Arabian Gulf', up popped a spoofed web page that read 'The Gulf you are looking for does not exist. Try Persian Gulf'. Iranian hackers have also been busy hacking into Arab websites and replacing maps of the Gulf with their own.

In 2005, the Iranian government was incensed when Qatar used 'Arabian Gulf' in its official documents relating to the 2006 Asian Games and threatened to boycott them. In the same vein, Tehran has threatened to cancel the 2009 Islamic Solidarity Games planned for October because GCC member countries, led by Saudi Arabia, have asked that references to the 'Persian Gulf' be dropped from the event's promotional materials and medals. However, negotiations are ongoing and the Games may yet be salvaged. In the past, Iran has banned National Geographic publications because its World Atlas had 'Arabian Gulf' in parentheses, as well as The Economist, which used 'Gulf' on a map published in the magazine.

Frankly speaking, if Iranian sensitivities are that delicate then I have no problem with any name they care to give this shared body of water as long as they do not impose their terminology on anyone else. In a spirit of live and let live there should be no reason why they can't continue with 'Persian Gulf' while we Arabs hold to 'Arabian Gulf' or, simply, 'Gulf' in the same way the British say 'English Channel' and the French La Manche (the Sleeve) when speaking of the Atlantic waters that separate the UK from France.

Just as the labels English Channel and La Manche are legally interchangeable, 'Arabian Gulf' and 'Persian Gulf' should be likewise in the eyes of the international community. Despite appeals from Gulf nations, as things stand, UN directives stipulate that 'Persian Gulf' should be used in official documents, while the US and the UK have both endorsed 'Persian Gulf' as the official term of reference. Given the close relationship that GCC countries enjoy with Washington and London, this entrenched stance on their part is uncooperative at best, offensive at worst.

Lastly, our predicament is shared by North and South Korea, which have asked the UN Conference on the Standardisation of Geographical names to change the 'Sea of Japan' to the 'East Sea'. Unlike its support for 'Persian Gulf', in this case, the UN has ruled that such issues should be settled by the countries concerned.

We are just as proud of our history and geopolitical status as the Iranians are and we deserve just as much respect from our friends, especially when we host so many throughout the Gulf region. I would, therefore, ask our leaders to vigorously pursue this issue at the UN and, further, I would request our allies to look favourably upon any such request.

Until now, Arab nations have been treating this issue with kid gloves. It's about time that we made ourselves heard. The warm waters of the Gulf will be around long after we're gone but as Theodore Roosevelt once said, "The one thing I want to leave my children is an honourable name".

Khalaf Al Habtoor is a businessman and the Chairman of Al Habtoor Group.