WANA (May 14) – Following Donald Trump’s announcement of his decision to rename the “Persian Gulf” to a fabricated name in official U.S. documents, the first Iranian-American Democratic woman in the U.S. Congress introduced a bill titled the “Persian Gulf Act.”

 

On Tuesday, May 13, 2025, Yasmin Ansari, a Democratic representative from the state of Arizona in the U.S. Congress, presented a bill to prevent the official name of the “Persian Gulf” from being changed.

 

This move came in reaction to statements made by Donald Trump, who had said that during his trip to Saudi Arabia, he would change the name of the Persian Gulf to a fabricated one.

 

In her speech in Congress, Ansari said that as the first Iranian-American Democratic woman elected to the U.S. Congress, she must say that the Iranian community in the United States and around the world is deeply outraged by the effort to change the name of this historic gulf.

 

She added that, that is why she proudly introduced the ‘Persian Gulf Act’ today — legislation that prohibits the use of federal funds to change the name of this body of water and prevents the government from using any name other than Persian Gulf in official documents.

 

She further said that while Donald Trump only thinks about his own interests, she will continue to fight his corruption and advocate for the American people.

 

She added that the purpose of this law is to protect a historic name that is important not only to Iranians but also to the identity of the region and even the credibility of international documents.

 

This bill is being proposed at a time when Trump, ahead of his trip to Arab Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, once again made controversial remarks about renaming the region.

 

Reactions in Iran and among Iranian communities abroad to this issue have been very strong. Officials from Iran’s Foreign Ministry have also called Trump’s potential move “provocative” and “baseless.”

 

Yasmin Ansari concluded by stressing that this action is part of her commitment to fighting extremism and destructive nationalism in American politics.