Explainer: What's Persian Gulf Day and why it matters?

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

The Persian Gulf, a strategic waterway and the world’s largest reservoir of oil and gas, is surrounded by eight oil-rich countries. Iran borders the entire northern shores of the water body, and its territory also forms the northern side of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil passageway.

An arm of the Arabian Sea, the waterway produces one-third of the world's oil, half of the world’s crude oil reserves as well as a significant amount of global natural gas reserves. 

However, the importance of the Persian Gulf is not confined to oil and gas alone. It has been a scene of political and economic tension between regional and extra-regional countries for years. 

The United States, which splurges billions of dollars annually to consolidate its military presence in the strategic waterway, has in recent years made desperate attempts to stir up the hornet's nest by dispatching its hostile ships close to Iran's territorial waters or engaging in illegal oil smuggling. 

Another issue that has kept the water body in the news has been its name. Despite historians as well as international bodies unanimously recognizing it as the 'Persian Gulf', some Arab countries and their Western allies have wilfully tried to tarnish its universally accepted name - calling it 'Arabian Gulf'. 

As a reminder of the waterway’s Persian identity, Iran on April 30 every year commemorates the Persian Gulf Day, which coincides with the anniversary of the expulsion of the Portuguese Navy from the Strait of Hormuz in 1622 by the legendary Safavid dynasty ruler Shah Abbas I.

What is Persian Gulf?

The strategic waterway in southwest Asia and an extension of the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf is located between the coastlines of southwestern Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. The water body got its name from the Achaemenid Persian Empire, also known as Persian Hakhamanishiya, around 330 B.C. 

Sir Arnold Wilson, in his acclaimed book ‘The Persian Gulf’ published in 1928, writes that no waterway has been as important to geologists, archaeologists, geographers, traders, politicians, tourists and academics as the Persian Gulf. He

"Since at least 2200 years ago, this waterway, which divides the Iran Plateau from the Arabia Plate, has possessed an Iranian identity," Wilson states.

The Persian Gulf has also been featured in colorful travelogues of Ibn Battuta, Pythagoras and King Darius and others from the bygone era, which attests to its importance as a strategic waterway. 

The countries surrounding it include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Oman. Iran is located on one side while the group of Arab states is on the other side. 

The deepest point of the Persian Gulf waterway is located in the Strait of Hormuz which sees more than 17 million barrels of oil pass through it every day, including most of the oil from OPEC countries.

The important Persian Gulf ports of Iran include Bandar Abbas, Bussher and Asaluyeh and the islands include Kish, Gheshm, Hormuz and Hengam — all of them major tourist attractions. 

Why Persian Gulf matters?

The Persian Gulf is significant for a host of reasons, most importantly for its abundant oil and gas reserves, which have given it the sobriquet of “world’s oil reservoir”. That’s one of the reasons Western powers, including the US, have sought to increase their footprint in the strategic waterway.

The region is home to two-thirds of the world’s total oil reserves and half of the world’s crude oil reserves. The volume of its natural resources is complemented by the size of oil fields and wells.

It is also a transit route for oil produced by regional countries including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with the Strait of Hormuz being the main route for this oil.

According to rough estimates, the Persian Gulf region contains more than 730 billion barrels of oil and over 70 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. Most of it is refined in the region itself with countries surrounding the water body setting up major petroleum refineries in recent years.

The strategic ports along the Persian Gulf shores include Bandar Abbas, Bushehr, Bandar Lengeh, Kish, Khorramshahr and Mahshahr (Iran), Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi (UAE), Basra, Al-Faw (Iraq).

What adds to its strategic significance is the Strait of Hormuz, a 39-km strip situated between Iran and Oman that is the only passage for over one-sixth of global oil production.  

Persian Gulf or Arabian Gulf?

Legendary geographers such as Strabo (Greek) and Ptolemy (Roman) in no ambiguous terms referred to this important stretch of water as the Persian Gulf. It also appeared in world maps sketched by them.  

Arab historians, explorers and geographers, including the 10th-century writer Agapius, have also referred to it as the Persian Gulf in their seminal works.

Abdel Khaleq al-Janabi, a Saudi Arabian history scholar, says the name Persian Gulf has been used for the waterway by world-renowned historians including Ibn Khaldoun and Ibn al Athir.

There was no disagreement over the name of this strategic body of water until the 1960s when the emergence of pan-Arabism and Arab nationalism gave rise to the dispute.

Some Arab states, with utter disregard for historical records and driven by geopolitical ambitions, started calling it the Arabian Gulf or al-Khaleej al-Arabi.

Some reports also pointed to British government agents such as Charles Belgrave and Roderick Oven who first used the name ‘Arabian Gulf’ in their books before it gained currency in the Arab world.

The United Nations and other international organizations, however, refused to recognize this forged name and stressed that the name of the strategic water body continues to be the Persian Gulf.

In August 2018, Iran’s then-foreign minister Javad Zarif blasted the US military for the Persian Gulf misnomer, saying the US Navy “cannot seem to find its way around our waters”.

"Perhaps because it hasn’t figured out its name: Persian Gulf, as it's been called for 2,000 years longer than the US has existed. Or maybe it doesn't know what it's doing in our backyard, 7,000 miles from home," he wrote at the time.

More recently, in January this year, Iran took exception to Iraqi premier Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani’s use of a fake name for the strategic waterway.

“The use of the name, Persian Gulf, for this body of water is a historical, eternal, documented and undeniable fact and repeating a false name does not change facts and brings no legitimacy to the false name,” foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani wrote.

What is Persian Gulf Day?

On April 30 every year, Iran marks the Persian Gulf Day, which coincides with the anniversary of celebrated Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I’s military campaign against the Portuguese Navy in 1622 when the foreign colonial forces were driven out of the Strait of Hormuz.

The day was instituted in 2005 by Iran’s High Council of Cultural Revolution and is marked every year with countrywide events, especially in the coastal provinces bordering the Persian Gulf.

The annual event, according to officials, is a means of reaffirming commitment to safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, especially in the wake of continuing attempts by some Western powers and their regional allies to destabilize regional waters.

On the eve of Persian Gulf Day on Saturday, the commander of IRGC Navy Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri vowed to resolutely “protect and safeguard” the Persian Gulf and its resources, while calling on the US and the Israeli regime to withdraw from the strategic waterway.

“The Persian Gulf is our home. We will resolutely protect and safeguard the Persian Gulf and its resources. We will not allow any act of aggression against its resources,” he was quoted as saying.

In 2010, Persian Gulf Day was registered as the country’s national heritage in a decision taken by the ministry of cultural heritage and tourism. It was in response to the campaign launched by Arab states that year to rename the waterway as ‘Arabian Gulf’.

What they said about Persian Gulf Day?

In a statement on his Twitter account on Sunday, Iran’s foreign minister described the Persian Gulf as an “important part of the undeniable and common identity of Iran and the region and a natural resource full of benefits for the residents around it”.

“Maximizing the benefits of the Persian Gulf will depend on the security, convergence and collective participation of the coastal countries of this proud water area,” he wrote, wishing Persian Gulf Day.

In a separate tweet, Iran’s foreign ministry said, “All historical and int'l sources - ancient maps, docs, books as well as UN directives - confirm that the body of water in the south of Iran has always been called the Persian Gulf”, dismissing claims made by Arab states.

Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the government spokesman, also took to Twitter to note that the Persian Gulf has “always been a historical symbol of Iran's solidarity, unity and strength”.

Syed Zafar Mehdi is a Tehran-based journalist, political commentator and author. He has reported for more than 13 years from India, Afghanistan, Kashmir and West Asia for leading publications worldwide.

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