TEHRAN:Iran has protested to Iraq over the use of the name “Arabian Gulf” for a regional football competition held in the neighboring country, state media reported Wednesday.
The Islamic republic insists the body of water should be called Persian instead of Arabian, and has repeatedly raised the issue with countries and organizations that refer to it otherwise.
Iraq on Friday welcomed Arab national teams from across the region to its southern city of Basra for the 25th edition of the competition officially known as “Arabian Gulf Cup.”
It is the first time Iraq has hosted the biennial competition — commonly referred to as the “Gulf Cup” — since it was launched in 1979.
“We summoned the Iraqi ambassador” on Sunday over the issue, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
“Although we have strategic, brotherly and deep relations with Iraq, we have clearly expressed our protest about this issue,” he said.
“We reflected the sensitivity of the great nation of Iran to the use of the exact and complete term of Persian Gulf to the Iraqi side.”
The name of the vital oil shipping lane has for years been a bone of contention between Iran and its Arab neighbors.
The 2010 edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games, due to have taken place in Tehran, was postponed and later canceled over the dispute.
In the same year, Iran warned that airlines using the term “Arabian Gulf” on inflight maps would be barred from its airspace.
In 2016, Oman Air switched off a map that labelled the waterway as the “Persian Gulf”, after a storm of criticism on social media.
In 2012, Iran criticized Internet giant Google for leaving the waterway nameless on its online map services.
Iran protests to Iraq over Gulf football cup name
https://arab.news/j5uf5
Iran protests to Iraq over Gulf football cup name
- It is the first time Iraq has hosted the biennial competition — commonly referred to as the “Gulf Cup”
WHO alarmed by health workers, civilians ‘forcibly detained’ in Sudan
- The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency
GENEVA: The World Health Organization voiced alarm Tuesday at reports that more than 70 health workers and around 5,000 civilians were being detained in Nyala in southwestern Sudan.
Since April 2023, Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been locked in a brutal conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced 12 million more and devastated infrastructure.
“We are concerned by reports from Nyala, the capital of Sudan’s South Darfur state, that more than 70 health care workers are being forcibly detained along with about 5,000 civilians,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
“According to the Sudan Doctors Network, the detainees are being held in cramped and unhealthy conditions, and there are reports of disease outbreaks,” the UN health agency chief said.
The RSF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North faction allied earlier this year, forming a coalition based in Nyala.
“WHO is gathering more information on the detentions and conditions of those being held. The situation is complicated by the ongoing insecurity,” said Tedros.
“The reported detentions of health workers and thousands more people is deeply concerning. Health workers and civilians should be protected at all times and we call for their safe and unconditional release.”
The WHO counts and verifies attacks on health care, though it does not attribute blame as it is not an investigation agency.
In total, the WHO has recorded 65 attacks on health care in Sudan this year, resulting in 1,620 deaths and 276 injuries. Of those attacks, 54 impacted personnel, 46 impacted facilities and 33 impacted patients.
Earlier Tuesday, UN rights chief Volker Turk said he was “alarmed by the further intensification in hostilities” in the Kordofan region in southern Sudan.
“I urge all parties to the conflict and states with influence to ensure an immediate ceasefire and to prevent atrocities,” he said.
“Medical facilities and personnel have specific protection against attack under international humanitarian law,” Turk added.
