Rouhani to Trump: It’s called the Persian Gulf, not the Washington Gulf

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani tells the United States it “should not plot against the Iranian nation every day,” amid fresh tensions between the enemies in the Gulf.

Tehran and Washington have traded barbs over a spate of incidents in the past year involving their forces in the sensitive waters of the Gulf.

Their latest high-seas confrontation came on April 15, when the United States said 11 Iranian boats harassed its navy ships in what it described as the international waters of the “Arabian Gulf.”

US President Donald Trump then tweeted that he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”

Iran’s president on replies that “the Americans should know that this gulf is called the Persian Gulf, not the New York Gulf or the Washington Gulf.”

“They must understand the situation by that name and by the coastal nation that has protected this waterway for thousands of years,” Rouhani says in a televised address during a cabinet meeting.

“They should not plot against the Iranian nation every day.

“The soldiers of our armed forces in the guardians of the Revolution, the army, Basij (paramilitary organization) and the police have always been and will be the guardians of the Persian Gulf.”

— AFP