Iranians rally over name of oil-rich Gulf

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Dozens of Iranians rallied outside the United Arab Emirates' embassy on Tuesday to press Tehran's demand for a waterway crucial to the world economy to be called the Persian, and not the Arabian, Gulf.

The name of the key oil shipping route is a bone of contention between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and its predominantly Sunni Arab neighbours.

Iran and the UAE are also embroiled in a territorial dispute over the sovereignty of three islands in the waterway.

Iran insists on calling the water along its southern coast the Persian Gulf. The body of water also touches Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain, and many people in these states refer to the waters as the Arabian Gulf.

Up to 200 people demonstrated at the UAE embassy to mark Iran's annual National Persian Gulf Day, Reuters witnesses said.

"Always Persian Gulf," one banner said.

"Children of Iran are looking toward Bahrain," read another.

A hardline Iranian newspaper last year triggered protests in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, which has a majority Shi'ite population, by saying it belonged to non-Arab Iran. The two countries later moved to defuse a potential diplomatic row.

In 2004, Iran banned National Geographic magazine when it included the Arabian Gulf name in parentheses on a map. The magazine later changed the labelling, a move Iranian officials described as "a victory for all Iranians".

Some news organisations use the Gulf as a compromise term, but the Islamic Republic banned distribution of the Economist magazine two years ago after it published an article and a map that referred to the Gulf instead of the Persian Gulf.