UAE scraps textbook that used ‘Persian Gulf’ name

The United Arab Emirates has ordered the removal from a textbook of the term “Persian Gulf” for the waterway that is the subject of a bitter naming dispute with Iran, a newspaper there reports.

The UAE education ministry stepped in after complaints that the book was using that name instead of “Arabian Gulf,” which Arab countries use to describe the body of water, Emirat Al-Youm says.

The ministry said the fourth-grade textbook, which features a map with the name, had been on “trial and will be corrected in future prints,” the daily reports.

The United Nations and international maps generally refer to the stretch of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran as the “Persian Gulf,” the term used by ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy.

Arab states, particularly the Gulf monarchies that are arch rivals of Iran, call it the “Arabian Gulf.”

— AFP