Iran Majlis prepares plan to create Persian Gulf province

An Iranian lawmaker says Majlis is preparing a new plan according to which a new province called Persian Gulf will be created in the southern part of the country. Vali Esmaili said on Monday that the plan would be ready before the national Persian Gulf day, which will be observed on April 29, Fars News Agency reported. The lawmaker, who is a member of the Majlis Councils and Domestic Policy Committee, added that the new province would be a tourism and cultural hub with “Bu Musa” island as its capital. “According to this plan, the name of Abu Musa [island] will be changed to Bu Musa which is a combination of [the Persian word] boum which means 'place' and 'Musa'…because Abu Musa is a fake name,” he noted. Esmaili said the province will consist of Lesser Tunb, Greater Tunb, Kish, and Qeshm islands as well as Sirik, Lengeh and Lavan ports. He said the plan is an answer to baseless UAE claims over the Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf and aims to protect Iran's territorial integrity. On Wednesday, April 11, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Abu Musa Island as part of his tour of the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan. Following the visit, Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan criticized President Ahmadinejad’s visit to the Iranian island of Abu Musa as a "violation of UAE sovereignty over its territories." The islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa have historically been part of Iran, proof of which can be found and corroborated by countless historical, legal, and geographical documents in Iran and other parts of the world. However, the United Arab Emirates has repeatedly laid baseless claims to the islands.