The Trump administration is planning some big changes.
President Donald Trump will reportedly announce during a trip to Saudi Arabia that the United States will refer to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf.
Two unnamed U.S. officials reportedly informed the AP on Tuesday that Trump was planning to officially rename the gulf as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.
While it has been predominantly referred to as the Persian Gulf since the 16th century, Gulf Arab states – including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates – have sought to remove Persia from the name and commonly refer to it as the Arabian Gulf.
In the United States, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency uses “Persian Gulf” as the “conventional” name for the gulf, but also lists “Arabian Gulf” and “Persian-Arabian Gulf” as variants.
According to the report, “The U.S. military for years has unilaterally referred to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf in statements and images it releases.”
President Trump controversially renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America following his inauguration in January.
Last month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned Iran there would be “all hell to pay” if they refused to agree to Trump’s demands over the country’s nuclear program.
In March, Trump also warned Iran they would “suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire,” if they continued to back the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
On Tuesday, President Trump hinted that he would soon make a “very big” announcement ahead of his planned trip to the Middle East.
“We’re going to have a very, very big announcement to make, like as big as it gets,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, where was is meeting with Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney. “And I won’t tell you on what … and it’s very positive.”
“It is really, really positive. And that announcement will be made either Thursday or Friday or Monday before we leave,” Trump added. “But it’ll be one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years about a certain subject, very important subject. So you’ll all be here.”
After that, the president asked Carney if he’d like to say a few words.
“I’m on the edge of my seat,” Carney said, drawing laughter from the press before thanking Trump for his “hospitality” and “leadership.”
