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Persian Gulf
(Ref: Wikipedia)
The Persian Gulf is an extension of the Gulf of Oman in between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. This inland sea of some 233,000 kmē is connected to the Gulf of Oman in the east by the Strait of Hormuz, and its western end is marked by the major river delta of the Arvand-Rood, which carries the waters of the Euphrates and the Tigris.
The Persian name for this body of water was borrowed by almost all the old languages (including Greek) as - the Persian Gulf - and has been in use everywhere since ancient times, for it signifies the first major nation-state in that area, namely the Persian Empire (now Iran). In the 1960s, with the rise of Arab nationalism, Arab countries began to call The Persian Gulf, the "Arabian Gulf". However, the Iranian government led two resolutions in the United Nations to officially recognize that body of water as the Persian Gulf. The first announcement was made through the document UNAD, 311/Qen on March 5, 1971 and the second was UNLA 45.8.2 (C) on August 10, 1984.
Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are (clockwise, from the southeast): United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar on a peninsula off the Saudi coast, Bahrain on an island, Kuwait and Iraq in the northwest, and Iran in the north. The Persian Gulf and its coastal areas are the largest single source of crude oil and related industries dominate the region. Various small islands lie within the Gulf and some are contested between neighboring states.
The Persian Gulf was among the scenes of the Iran-Iraq War that lasted from 1980 to 1988, as with each side attacking the other's oil tankers. In 1991 the Persian Gulf again was the background for a Persian Gulf War as Iraq invaded Kuwait and was subsequently pushed back during what is now predominantly known as the Persian Gulf War, despite the fact that this conflict did not focus primarily on the Persian Gulf.