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Summary

The soft diplomatic language that Iranian politicians use when meeting their Arab Gulf counterparts is unmatched in its gentleness and friendly tone, but it attempts to hide another face of arrogance and superiority toward their Arab Gulf neighbors.

Days ago, Oman announced in an official statement that it adheres to international law, which allows freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz without any fees or charges of any kind, and designated a route in its territorial waters for commercial ships. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard then fired a projectile at a commercial ship in Omani territorial waters last week, disrupting maritime navigation and leading to new American strikes on military sites and surveillance radars of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The Revolutionary Guard responded to the American attacks by bombing Kuwait and Bahrain with missiles and drones, which were intercepted by air defenses in the two Gulf countries, mitigating their damage.

The brave Omani statement reflected Oman's commitment to international law, but at the same time it showed a true face of Iran that emerged after the recent war with the American-Israeli attacks on Iran. This face states frankly that we adhere to complete control and absolute dominance over the Gulf, which they call Persian and we call, on its western coast, the Arabian Gulf.

The soft diplomatic language that Iranian politicians use when meeting their Arab Gulf counterparts is unmatched in its gentleness and friendly tone, but it attempts to hide another face of arrogance and superiority toward their Arab Gulf neighbors, whom they do not call neighboring countries, but rather call the Arab Gulf states 'کشورهای حاشیه خلیج فارس' meaning fringe or peripheral states of the Gulf, which they call the Persian Gulf. Not only do they call it Persian, but they have also designated a day to celebrate annually on April 30 (Nisan) of each year (روز ملی خلیج فارس) meaning the National Day of the Persian Gulf! This day marks the seizure of the strait and the departure of the Portuguese in 1622 through an alliance between the English and the Safavid state at that time.

This celebration of this day began only 20 years ago in 2005, i.e., after the mullahs came to rule the neighbors in Iran. Khomeini had, at the beginning of the revolution, made a timid call to name it the 'Islamic' Gulf, but that call quickly faded under the sounds of cannons between him and Saddam's Iraq in 1980.

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There is no country in the world that celebrates a day for a sea it borders. We have not heard of a Finnish or Swedish celebration of the Baltic Sea, nor a maritime festival for the China Sea, nor a British celebration of the English Channel, which the French call La Manche. Only the neighbors in the 'Islamic' Republic of Iran have designated a holiday to celebrate the 'Persian' Gulf Day, as a way to impose dominance over the entire Gulf from its strait to the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab.

Let Iran call the Arabian Gulf 'Persian', let it call our countries 'Gulf fringe states', and let it celebrate the 'Persian Gulf' Day, even declare it an official holiday and a celebratory occasion as it wishes, for it is free in its naming, and we cannot prevent it from choosing its holidays, even if they represent an arrogant and mob mentality that does not reflect good neighborliness or sincere neighborly relations. But what we must not allow in the Gulf states is to abandon freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, whatever it costs us. The strait is an international passage, and freedom of passage through it is an international right under international law. Supporting Oman's sound position is a matter of fate for the international economy, and internationalizing Iranian obstruction of global trade is a demand to involve the international community in maintaining freedom of international trade, even if it requires going to the Security Council and issuing an international resolution imposing freedom of navigation in the strait under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, i.e., using all means to ensure free international navigation in the strait, including military force, which could mean forming an international force to impose that required navigational freedom. Freedom of navigation in natural international straits is an international right, not limited to the right of Gulf states, and the responsibility to ensure that navigational freedom is an international responsibility, not just that of the Gulf states alone, but an international one. Accordingly, the international community must move to stop Iranian piracy on the international right of trade and navigation in the strait, provided that we unite our efforts and coordinate our influential Gulf diplomacy to issue an international legislation that stops Iranian bullying in the Gulf.

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