May 13, 2016
The Islamic Republic last week filed a formal dip-lomatic protest over an obscure piece of legislation introduced in the US House of Representatives by a single congressman using the term “Arabian Gulf.”
The Foreign Ministry filed the protest with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which handles diplomatic contacts with the United States.
Such protests deal with official acts of another government that are objectionable to the complaining government.
But in this case, what Iran was complaining about was not an official action of the United States, just the musings of a solitary congressman, Rep. Randy Forbes of Virginia, a Republican.
He introduced a resolution, H. Res. 709, last month complaining about Iran. No other member of Congress has yet joined in sponsoring it. And no committee has taken any action on it.
The text charges that Iran has “undermined stability in the Arabian Gulf” by such actions as conducting a live fire exercise last December within 1,500 yards of a US aircraft carrier.
The key element of the resolution, however, says the House “pledges to consider the behavior of Iranian military and paramilitary forces, along with other relevant considerations, when considering or debating any legislation that pertains to Iran, including sanctions and arms control agreements.” In other words, the resolution is part of the general Republican effort to keep hammering at the Obama Administration policies on Iran.
The legislation is a resolution, which mans it is just a statement of opinion and is not binding in any way.
It has received no attention in the United States. But in Iran, it was the top story in the May 2 issue of the ultra-hardline daily Kayhan.
And it is said to have been the basis for comments later that day by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi who fumed, “Today, the enemy makes statements that are bigger than their mouths. They sit and scheme that Iran must not have military drills in the Persian Gulf.”
The resolution, however, says nothing about banning Iranian drills in the Persian Gulf or anywhere else. And the resolution is not the position of the Obama Administration, just of one Virginia congressman.
In the media and speeches, loud objections have been heard about Forbes’ use of the term “Arabian Gulf, although Khamenehi did not complain about that. The resolution uses that term six times.
Tehran is always incensed when it sees the term “Arabian Gulf” used abroad. Before the revolution, the term was rarely used in the US because American officials dealt with Iran and heard only the term Persian Gulf. But now American officials deal more with Arabs than Iranians, and hear that other term.