A senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said on Sunday that the Persian Gulf belongs to Iranians based on all Arab and Iranian documents, remarks by historians and maps in museums.
"The story of renaming the Persian Gulf and distorting its name by the proxies of the arrogance is a seditious move but they should know that this is a futile and momentary effort," he said.
Velayati said the insistence on changing the name of the Persian Gulf "is actually a precursor to changing the identity and ownership" of the waterway in order to dominate Central Asia and the Indian Ocean.
During a speech last October, US President Donald Trump used the fictitious name "the Arabian Gulf" to refer to the Persian Gulf, sparking anger and mockery among the Iranian people.
Velayati said the Saudis and others who speak about the Persian Gulf in fabrications and untruth are in fact acting as the mouthpieces of the US, Israel and the UK, which are looking for colonialism and tyranny.
