Iran’s Foreign Ministry has threatened to take legal action against Google after the search engine dropped the name “Persian Gulf” from its Google Maps, instead leaving the waterway between Iran and Arab states nameless, state TV reports.

According to Reuters:

“One of the seditionist acts taken as part of the soft war against the Iranian nation has been Google’s shameless act to drop the name ‘Persian Gulf’ which is … against historical documents,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying.

Iran says it is the Persian Gulf, the Arab states say it is the Arabian Gulf. Foreign language descriptions can offend either party if they use one name or the other, or sometimes if they avoid an adjective altogether…

Iran threatened in 2010 to ban airlines from using its airspace if they referred to the Arabian instead of Persian Gulf.

Our searches for “Persian Gulf” and “Arabian Gulf” on Google Maps points us to the right body of water, but it is indeed nameless. 

Thoughts?