Airlines face Iran ban for not using the term 'Persian Gulf'

Iran's road and transport minister, Hamid Behbahani, has said that 'airlines of the southern Persian Gulf countries' will be banned from entering the country's airspace if they refer to the waterway between Iran and Arab states as the 'Arabian' instead of 'Persian' Gulf. 'The airlines of the southern Persian Gulf countries flying to Iran are warned to use the term Persian Gulf on their electronic display boards,' Behbahani said in comments in the daily Iran newspaper. 'They will be banned from Iranian airspace for a month the first time and upon repetition their aircraft will be grounded in Iran and flight permits to Iran will be revoked.'