DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: State carrier Oman Air has apologized for inflight maps that labelled the Gulf — the waterway separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula — as the "Persian Gulf.”
The Sultanate of Oman has sought to maintain neutrality in the dispute between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Shi'ite Iran, which the GCC has accused of fomenting discord and instability in the Middle East region.
But the naming of the strategic oil export artery is a perennial bone of contention between Iran and its Arab neighbors, as Arab countries have for decades called it the "Arabian Gulf."
Foreign language descriptions can offend either party if they use one name or the other, or sometimes if they avoid an adjective altogether.
Gulf Arab social media users criticized Oman Air and demanded the label be changed, prompting the airline to temporarily disable the map on its seatback screens.
"Given that you are an Omani airline and an Arab one, I wish you would take immediate measures to correct the label of the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Gulf which is proven in our history," tweeted Hamad Midfa.
In an official statement released on Saturday, Oman Air described the map as a mistake, noting the planes had been leased from Kenya Airways. The Omani airline has asked Panasonic, which maintains its inflight entertainment systems, to change the map software without delay, Oman Air said, and "crew have been notified to disable the disturbing maps."
The Gulf is home to the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet, and Iran and the United Arab Emirates are embroiled in a territorial dispute over the sovereignty of three islands in the waterway.
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh)
Oman Air apologizes for maps misnaming Arabian Gulf
Oman Air apologizes for maps misnaming Arabian Gulf
Two Tunisia columnists handed over three years in prison
- Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies have already been in detention for almost two years
- They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering
TUNIS: Two prominent Tunisian columnists were sentenced on Thursday to three and a half years in prison each for money laundering and tax evasion, according to a relative and local media.
The two men, Mourad Zeghidi and Borhen Bsaies, have already been in detention for almost two years for statements considered critical of President Kais Saied’s government, made on radio, television programs and social media.
They were due to be released in January 2025 but have remained in custody on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.
“Three and a half years for Mourad and Borhen,” Zeghidi’s sister, Meriem Zeghidi Adda, wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
Since Saied’s power grab, which granted him sweeping powers on July 25, 2021, local and international NGOs have denounced a regression of rights and freedoms in Tunisia.
Dozens of opposition figures and civil society activists are being prosecuted under a presidential decree officially aimed at combatting “fake news” but subject to a very broad interpretation denounced by human rights defenders.
Others, including opposition leaders, have been sentenced to heavy prison terms in a mega-trial of “conspiracy against state security.”
In 2025, Tunisia fell 11 places in media watchdog Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) World Press Freedom Index, dropping from 118th to 129th out of 180 countries.
