Quick Take | Dial I for Hormuz

A reported conversation between assassinated leaders Ali Khamenei and Muammar Gaddafi from the 1980s about the significance of naming the Gulf's waterways echoes into the present

The then Iranian president Hodjatoleslam Seyed Ali Khamenei (L) with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (R) during the 8th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1986 in Harare, Zimbabwe (Photo | AFP)

For someone who insisted on rebranding the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America soon after signing in for the second time, it’s significant that Donald Trump called Hormuz ‘the Strait of Iran’ in his first all-caps post about its reopening. Iran has placed its control of the passage as a precondition for truce. The significance of naming the region’s waterways can be understood from a conversation between Ali Khamenei, the assassinated Iranian leader, and Muammar Gaddafi, the assassinated Libyan leader, in the 1980s. When the latter called the Persian Gulf the Arabian Gulf, the ayatollah is reported to have said he would be happy to rename it when Arabs finally get out of America’s grip. It shows the long-held sentiments that underline the ongoing negotiations.