Nobody in Iran is happy about the latest edition of National Geographic.
The magazine has printed a map which correctly names and locates the Persian Gulf but underneath, in parenthesis, adds the words Arabian Gulf as an alternative name for the waterway.
The American-owned magazine has been banned from sale in Iran pending a “correction” of the map and its reporters are barred from visiting the Islamic republic. “We will not accept the use of the term ‘Arabian Gulf’, which is contrary to United Nations documents,” Hossein Khoshvaght, the Iranian Culture Ministry’s head of foreign press affairs, said.
Iranian bloggers have come up with their own solution to this insult to Persian sensibilities. Click here to find out what it is.
Less funny is the attitude of the Tehran Times which claims to know who’s behind the scenes and pulling the strings in a deliberate effort to insult the Islamic Republic:
“The US Zionist lobby