Jul 15 at 10:18 PM

Mr. Kourosh Zaim

kourosh_zaim@yahoo.com

 Dear Mr. Zaim:

 Thank you for your email of January 31, 2014, concerning my mention of the Arabian Gulf in the address I delivered to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on January 16, 2014. I regret the delay in replying to you.

 Canada does not have a policy on the official geographic name of this body of water, which is bordered by six Arab states as well as Iran. As such, the nomenclature used to refer to this body of water does not signal a specific Canadian position on what the gulf should be called. In fact, both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and I referred to the Persian Gulf in our respective messages to the Iranian community on the occasion of the Iranian New Year, Nowruz, in March 2014.

 Thank you for writing.

 Sincerely,

 John Baird, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Foreign Affairs