Trump says he’ll decide on name of ‘Persian Gulf’ on Middle East visit

United States President Donald Trump has said he will make a decision on how the US refers to the “Persian Gulf” during an upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said he expected his hosts to ask about the name the US uses for the waterway during his first trip to the Middle East since retaking the White House.

“I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said in response to a question about whether he would make an announcement on the body of water’s name.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I don’t know if feelings are going to be hurt.”

“I’m going to be given a briefing on that and I’ll make a decision,” Trump added.

Trump’s comments came after US media reported that he plans to use the May 13-16 trip to announce that the US will begin referring to the body of water as the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia.

The name of the waterway has long been a source of tensions between Arab nations and Iran.

Iran argues that the “Persian Gulf” is the appropriate name in light of historical evidence, including ancient maps, that shows it is part of its territory.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and other Arab states use the term “Arabian Gulf” or “the Gulf”.

In 2023, Tehran summoned the Iraqi ambassador to protest his country’s use of the name “Arabian Gulf Cup” for the region’s flagship football tournament.

In 2012, Iran threatened to sue internet giant Google for leaving the waterway nameless on its online map services.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the latest suggestions of a name change as “indicative of hostile intent toward Iran and its people”, and warned that such a move would “only bring the wrath of all Iranians from all walks of life”.

“Such biased actions are an affront to all Iranians, regardless of their background or place of residence,” Araghchi said in a post on X early on Thursday.

“Let’s hope that the absurd rumours about the PERSIAN Gulf that are going around are no more than a disinformation campaign by ‘forever warriors’ to anger Iranians all over the world and agitate them.”

In one of his first actions as president, Trump in January signed an executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”.