Iran criticizes Iraqi officials’ use of ‘Arabian Gulf Cup’

ANKARA

Iraq's envoy to Tehran was summoned by Iran's Foreign Ministry in response to Iraq calling a regional football tournament the "Arabian Gulf Cup”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said the Iraqi ambassador to Tehran was summoned to the ministry in response to the issue, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported Wednesday.

“We communicated Iran's sensitivity regarding the use of the term Arabian Gulf instead of Persian Gulf,” Abdollahian said.

Abdollahian added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, who used the term "Arabian Gulf Cup" at the opening of the tournament last week, corrected this in a subsequent online article.

In a Tweet, Iraq’s Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr Iraqi also used the term "Arabian Gulf Cup."

On Jan. 8, Iranian lawmakers raised the issue at a parliamentary session calling on Iraqi politicians to apologize over the use of a "fake" name for the Gulf.

Basra, Iraq is hosting the 25th Arabian Gulf Cup through Jan. 19 with the participation of eight gulf countries.

Arab countries refer to the region as the “Arabian gulf” while Iran argues that the authentic name is the “Persian Gulf.”

The competition is often called simply the Gulf Cup.

*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report