There is one more condition Iran should consider attaching to any new system governing maritime traffic entering the Persian Gulf: if you want to enter the Persian Gulf, you should at least be prepared to call it the Persian Gulf.
This may sound symbolic. It isn’t.
Names matter because names eventually become institutions, institutions become habits, and habits become accepted reality. For decades, Iran has complained whenever governments, military organizations, airlines, media companies or mapmakers have substituted the politically manufactured term “Arabian Gulf” for the historical name Persian Gulf. Iran issues a protest, somebody issues a response, everyone moves on, and nothing really changes.
Perhaps Iran has been approaching the problem from the wrong direction.
If Iran is going to exercise greater administrative authority over maritime traffic entering the Persian Gulf, it should establish a very simple rule: all documentation submitted to Iranian authorities concerning navigation into the Persian Gulf must identify the body of water by its internationally established name — the Persian Gulf.
The historical case is hardly obscure. In fact, the United Nations Secretariat’s own editorial directive states explicitly that “Persian Gulf” is the standard geographical designation for the sea between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. Iran has repeatedly raised the issue at the United Nations, including as recently as 2023, arguing that geographical names constitute historical heritage rather than political branding exercises.
So why should Iran continue treating this merely as something to complain about?
Make it administrative.
A tanker submits its navigation documents. Destination: Persian Gulf. Fine.
A shipping company files its paperwork. Route: Strait of Hormuz to Persian Gulf. Fine.
A vessel submits an electronic chart identifying the destination as the “Arabian Gulf.” The application is returned: incorrect geographical designation — please correct and resubmit.
No shouting. No speeches. No diplomatic crisis. No need to confiscate someone’s atlas.
Just bureaucracy.
And bureaucracy, repeated thousands of times, can accomplish something diplomacy sometimes cannot.
Shipping companies would rapidly adapt because they are in the business of moving cargo, not engaging in geographical arguments. Insurers would adapt. Freight forwarders would adapt. Port agents would adapt. Navigation companies would adapt. Nobody moving a $100 million cargo of oil is going to leave a tanker sitting outside the Strait of Hormuz because someone refuses to change two words on a form.
Within a remarkably short period, the terminology would become routine:
Persian Gulf.
And that is precisely the point.
There is, however, an important distinction Iran should observe. The Strait of Hormuz is an international strait, and international law of the sea strongly protects continuous navigation through such waterways. Article 38 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides that ships and aircraft enjoy a right of transit passage through qualifying international straits and says that passage “shall not be impeded.”
Iran therefore should not turn this into an unnecessarily provocative claim that its authorities can board every passing vessel, search the captain’s books and maps, discover the words “Arabian Gulf” somewhere on board and seize the ship.
That would transform a powerful symbolic argument into a questionable maritime confrontation.
The smarter approach is narrower.
Iran should control the terminology of the institutions and administrative systems it controls.
If you submit documents to Iran, use Persian Gulf.
If you request Iranian port services, use Persian Gulf.
If you communicate with Iranian maritime authorities, use Persian Gulf.
If Iran participates in a regional navigation or traffic-management system, its databases should use Persian Gulf.
If an electronic application submitted to an Iranian authority contains “Arabian Gulf,” the computer should simply reject it and ask the applicant to correct the geographical designation.
This is not fundamentally different from governments insisting that passports, customs declarations, bills of lading and other official documents use their recognized terminology. States establish administrative standards constantly.
More importantly, Iran should understand that control over a strategic gateway creates forms of leverage considerably more sophisticated than simply charging tolls.
There is financial leverage.
There is commercial leverage.
There is regulatory leverage.
There is security leverage.
And there is also cultural and diplomatic leverage.
Iran has spent decades demanding recognition of the name Persian Gulf while possessing one of the most extraordinary geographical advantages on Earth: the northern shore of the Strait of Hormuz and a coastline running along much of the Gulf itself.
If geography has suddenly become valuable again, Iran should use that geography intelligently.
The objective should not be harassment. It should not be stopping ships for trivial reasons. It should certainly not be creating unpredictable conditions that make international shipping unnecessarily dangerous.
Quite the opposite.
Iran should aspire to make navigation through the Strait of Hormuz extraordinarily professional, predictable, safe, and efficient. The message should effectively be:
You are welcome here. Your ships are safe. Your cargo is safe. Your crews will be treated professionally. The rules are transparent. The fees are published. The navigation lanes are clearly marked. And, incidentally, the body of water you are entering is called the Persian Gulf.
There is something almost elegant about that approach.
For much of the twentieth century, Iran watched other governments attempt to change the terminology through political repetition. “Arabian Gulf” was repeated until people hoped repetition itself would manufacture legitimacy.
Iran can answer repetition with repetition.
Every tanker.
Every container ship.
Every customs declaration.
Every port document.
Every navigation instruction.
Every insurance certificate.
Every maritime database.
Every day.
Persian Gulf. Persian Gulf. Persian Gulf.
Eventually people stop thinking about it.
And that is when a name has truly won.
This is also part of a much larger strategic opportunity for Iran. If the country emerges from the present confrontation with greater influence over the entrance to the Persian Gulf, it should resist the temptation to think about Hormuz merely as a weapon. A weapon has value primarily when somebody fears that you will use it. A functioning international gateway creates value every single day.
Iran should therefore think less like the owner of a roadblock and more like the operator of the world’s most strategically important toll plaza.
Make it safe.
Make it efficient.
Make it predictable.
Make money from it where international law permits.
Build institutions around it.
And use those institutions to establish standards.
One of those standards should be extraordinarily simple:
Welcome to the Persian Gulf.
Because if you are going to sail into it, the least you can do is get the name right.
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