SMCCDI Note:  The US Adminsitration, including President Bush and his speechwriters and especially the US Department of State, must avoid following the ill path of some mercantilist or opportunistic European circles and/or Government, such as Britain or France, that are trying to accomodate some backwarded Pan Nasserian Arab circles of the PERSIAN GULF region in their desperate try to re-name the famous water body with the meaningless word of "Gulf"; or worst with the illegitimate qualification of "Arab Gulf"

Indeed, such ill policy will only help the Islamic regime to use the nationalistic card and to try to rally Iranians, well known for their attachment to their cultural heritage and country, against those, such as America, who claim to follow principles and to respect others traditions or heritages.

In addition, such error of name prononciation, made recently by the US Adminsitration and Mr. Bush during his last visit of the region, will only help the Islamic regime to undermine the friendly feeling of the Iranian Nation toward America.

No one should forget, that Iran and Iranians will remain, in the region, till the end of times, and especially much after than the Islamic regime has disapeared and that all foreign military presence have left the PERSIAN GULF. 

Again, the correct, historical and the UN recognized name, is the PERSIAN GULF, and SMCCDI would like to invite those members of American Adminstration who have a lack of knowledge, to study the fact sheet located at:   http://daneshjoo.org/article/publish/article_2385.shtml

Members of the US Adminsitration must especially not relay on those few Iranian writers, such as Amir Taheri, who when writing for some Arab newspapers, forget to use the full and correct name of the PERSIAN GULF, or that when writing for some American newspapers try to portray a riot in north of Iran as an Ethnic problem.  Indeed, the same Gas riot that happened in Qhaem-Shahr happened in other level in Sari and some other cities. They all marked IRANIANS discontent of the Islamic regime and in no case an identity problem.

As many Iranians say: "Mr. Taheri likes have only of Iranian, the ability of speaking the Persian Language, but it's long that they have lost their Iranian soul".

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Iran has refused to receive Washington's protest over the recent incident between Iranian and U.S. naval ships because it used the term "Gulf" instead of "Persian Gulf," the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

"Iran refused to accept the U.S. government's message due to the appearance of the world 'Gulf' instead of 'Persian Gulf' in it and rejected it," Ali-Akbar Rezaie, head of the No. 1 American Affairs Department at Foreign Ministry told IRNA.

"So, on this basis, no message has yet been received and evidently, once a revised version is received, it would be investigated," Rezaie said.

The United States said on Jan. 10 that it had lodged an official protest against Iran over Jan. 6 incident, in which Washington said that five Iranian boats had harassed and threatened three U.S. Navy warships in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz.

"We have in fact now prepared and given to the Swiss a diplomatic note formally protesting this incident," State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Switzerland has been looking after American interests in Tehran via its embassy since the United States severed its relations with Iran since 1980.

After the ship incident, Bush administration officials immediately warned Iran to refrain from taking "provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future."

But Iran responded by calling the incident "something normal" and said the incident has been resolved.