Andre Yoskowitz
18 May 2012 0:01
Earlier today, Iran's Foreign Ministry threatened to sue Google after the search giant removed the name "Persian Gulf" from its Google Maps service.
Says a Ministry spokesperson: "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 against historical documents. We have put on our agenda to make an official complaint against Google."
The Gulf itself has long been a controversial topic, with Iran calling it the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iraq calling it the Arabian Gulf. Different descriptions offend the rival parties and it looks like Google likely just removed the name to remove a potentially offensive adjective.
This is not the first time Iran has pulled such a stunt. In 2010, the nation tried to ban any airline from its airspace if it did not call the waterway the Persian Gulf.