President Trump is expected to announce that the US will begin referring to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf, or the Gulf of Arabia, while visiting Saudi Arabia next week.
The Associated Press, citing multiple US officials, reported on the name change Tuesday, which comes months after Trump ordered that the Gulf of Mexico be referred to as the Gulf of America.
It’s unclear if the relabeling is the “earth-shattering” announcement Trump teased at the Oval Office Tuesday during his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets,” Trump said. “And I won’t tell you on what … and it’s very positive.”
“It’ll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, very important subject.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The inland sea covers an area of nearly 97,000 square miles, and borders Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman.
Since the 1960s, Arab nations have lobbied for the body of water — widely known as the Persian Gulf since the 16th century — to be renamed.
Iran, which was known as Persia until 1935, has more than 1,000 miles of coastline along the gulf.
In 2012, the Iranian regime threatened legal action against Google over the tech company’s refusal to label the body of water at all on its maps.
In the US, Google Maps currently labels the sea as the “Persian Gulf (Arabian Gulf).” Meanwhile, Apple Maps only calls it the “Persian Gulf.”
In 2010, Iran also warned that airlines referring to the sea as the “Arabian Gulf” on in-flight monitors would be barred from Iranian airspace.
The Monaco-based International Hydrographic Organization — the global authority on nautical charts and sea names of which the US is a member — refers to the disputed body of water as the “Persian Gulf.”
Trump has the authority to change the name for official US purposes, like he did with the Gulf of America, but he can’t compel other countries to follow suit.
Congressional legislation would also be needed to keep the name change from being undone by his successor.
Trump, 78, will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates May 13-16. All three nations have coastlines along the gulf.
At the White House Tuesday, Trump suggested that the “big” announcement could come as early as Thursday, ahead of his departure.
