Quranic commentaries, historic maps use “Persian Gulf”: Rafsanjani

In a sermon at Friday prayers, Rafsanjani criticized Western powers for trying to foment discord among Persian Gulf neighbors by provoking territorial conflicts and urged Arab states to study the Islamic documents and relinquish their claims to the Iranian islands.

“We have expressed readiness for talks over this issue, but the West’s disruptive acts meant to create division are continuing.”

“The neighboring countries’ approach toward the name of the Persian Gulf and the Iranian islands is a result of the enemy’s efforts to undermine Islamic unity,” he stated.

“Historic maps, Islamic documents, and Muslim scholars’ commentaries” show the Arabs’ claims are a “historic mistake that will only bring division.”

“The Iranology Foundation has recently published an important book which includes 120 European maps and 40 maps of Islamic countries that use the name the Persian Gulf.

“They show that maps from 400 years before the advent of Islam use the name Persian Gulf, but in the late Qajar era the Ottoman Empire questioned this name and (some years) afterwards British officials launched a media propaganda campaign using the term the Arab Gulf in response to their loss from the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry,” he explained.

Arab leaders on March 30 expressed support for the UAE’s claims but called for a peaceful solution to the conflict.

A Damascus Declaration at the end of the recent summit of 22 Arab states also urged the UAE to seek “legal and peaceful ways” to gain control of the three Iranian islands of the Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Mussa, which are located in the Persian Gulf.

BA/HG

MNA

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