Gulf naming dispute surfaces between Iraqi, Iranian speakers
Shafaq News- Baghdad/ Tehran
Iraqi Parliament Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi on Thursday posted a photograph featuring the Arabic designation “Arabian Gulf,” after his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf shared an image bearing the Persian name.
#الخليج_العربي pic.twitter.com/K5VyYudX6Y
— هيبت الحلبوسي (@HaibetHalbousi) August 20, 2026
During his visit to Baghdad on Wednesday, Ghalibaf posted a photograph on X with a regional map behind him bearing the Persian-language label “Persian Gulf.” Al-Halbousi followed with his own image in front of a map bearing the Arabic term “Arabian Gulf.”
— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) August 19, 2026
The Gulf, a 241,000-square-kilometer (93,000-square-mile) waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, has long been the subject of a naming dispute: Tehran officially uses “Persian Gulf,” while Iraq and other Arab countries commonly use “Arabian Gulf.”
