Iran to ban airlines not using the term 'Persian Gulf'

Iran has warned that airlines will be banned from flying into its airspace, unless they use the term "Persian Gulf" on their in-flight monitors. The transport minister has threatened to impound planes that fail to comply.

The nation is most insistent that the stretch of water separating it from its southern neighbours should be known as the Persian Gulf. To call it the Gulf, annoys the authorities; to call it the Arabian Gulf, infuriates them even more.



Conferences are held to make the matter quite clear, an ancient map with definitive proof of the correct name was sent on a world tour.

And recently a foreign member of the cabin crew working for an Iranian airline was sacked and expelled from Iran when he got it wrong. Now the Iranian transport minister has given foreign airlines 15 days to change the name to Persian Gulf on their in flight monitors.