The annual event, marked on Ordibehesht 10 – April 29/30 – honors the 1622 expulsion of Portuguese colonizers after 115 years of occupation and reinforces Iran’s stance against alternative nomenclature by regional Arab neighbors.
Added to Iran’s national heritage list in 2010, the day celebrates the Persian Gulf’s cultural and geopolitical significance.
The 970-km-long Persian Gulf, flanked by Iran and the Arabian Peninsula, ranks as the world’s third-largest gulf.
Nationwide observances included cultural exhibitions and educational campaigns stressing the name’s historical roots dating to ancient Greek geographers.
Besides the name game the Arab states have launched, the United Arab Emirates, as a newly established country, has laid claims on the three Iranian islands of Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb, and the Lesser Tunb in recent years, while Iran has asserted the trio islands in the Persian Gulf are inseparable parts of the Iranian territory.
