President Donald Trump is reportedly set to announce his decision to rename the Persian Gulf sometime during his trip to the Middle East, a move that has united Iranians in strong opposition.
"I’ll have to make a decision," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday, according to the New York Times. "I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. I don’t know if feelings are going to be hurt."
The call to rename the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf has spurred backlash from Iranians belonging to various political, ethnic, and religious backgrounds — a rare display of solidarity from a nation known for its ideological diversity, from Persians to Kurds, Shia Muslims to Sunni Muslims.
“It goes beyond politics; it goes beyond religious divisions and ideologies — it’s about the nation and its history, and it has hit a chord,” said historian Touraj Daryaee, director of the Center for Persian Studies and the University of California, Irvine. “Does Trump want to negotiate with Iran or does he want to take away its national identity?”
'An affront to the people of Iran'
Several prominent political figures have condemned Trump’s announcement, including Iran’s former crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who called the renaming effort “an affront to the people of Iran.”
Additionally, Iran’s conservative Parliament Speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, posted on X, saying, “You might be able to buy shoes and clothes with dollars and dirhams, but history and geography can’t be bought.”
Although Trump lacks the authority to change geographical names outside of the United States, several companies with global influence have followed his directive. Last Friday, Google was sued by the Mexican government for adhering to Trump’s executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Impact on US-Iran nuclear talks
The controversy comes as the United States and Iran are engaged in delicate negotiations regarding Iran’s advancing nuclear program. As of now, four rounds of negotiations have been held.
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former senior Iranian diplomat and member of Iran’s 2015 nuclear negotiating team, argues that the renaming of the Gulf will undermine these talks. “It will just create mistrust and embolden the hard-liners in Iran who say you can’t trust America,” he said.