TEHRAN -- Iran is commemorating the National Day of the Persian Gulf.
Every year, Iranians observe Persian Gulf Day on the 10th of Ordibehesht, the second month on the Persian calendar, which usually falls on April 30.
The date coincides with the anniversary of a successful military campaign by Shah Abbas I of Persia in 1622, which drove the Portuguese navy out of the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that separates the Persian Gulf from the Sea of Oman.
The national occasion is meant to call attention to the fact that the inland sea has been referred to by historians and ancient texts as the Persian Gulf since the Achaemenid Empire was established in what is now modern day Iran.
The Persian Gulf is also important as an international trade route connecting the Middle East to Africa, India and China.
In a statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry described the Persian Gulf as the symbol of peace, friendship and co-existence among the regional nations, calling on the outsiders to respect the establishment of security and peace in the Persian Gulf in the hands of its littoral states.
“Throughout the history of the region, which has been full of ups and downs, the Persian Gulf, this civilization-making span of water, has constantly been named the Persian Gulf or called by its equivalents in all foreign languages.
“From millennia B.C. up until now, the Persian Gulf has always been referred to with the same ancient name or the ‘Persian Sea’ in a variety of books, travelogues, documents, maps, historical researches, and numerous international documents written in different languages. Historians and researchers have emphatically used the same name particularly in credible Islamic and Arabic sources of reference,” it said.
While laying emphasis on the policy of neighborliness, the statement said, “the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran hopes that this body of water will be a sanctuary of regional security and stability as well as a symbol of peace, friendship and co-existence among regional nations, and that others will respect the establishment of peace and security in the Persian Gulf by the littoral states”.
“We offer congratulations to all Iranians and those who have done their utmost to safeguard this soil and its waters on this great occasion, which is reminiscent of the expulsion of colonialists from the region, and pay tribute to the honorable martyrs of the Persian Gulf,” it added.