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Where is the Arab Gulf? 

Arab Gulf 

With the growth of Arab nationalism (pan-Arabism) during the 1960s, a number of Arab states of the region began using the term Arabian Gulf for the Persian Gulf.

 Only Greek historian Strabon, during the first century AD, used the term Persian Gulf when discussing a strand of waters we would call the Red Sea today. 

The term Persian Gulf (or Arab Gulf, a name used by the Arabs) is sometimes used not just for the Persian Gulf proper, but for Persian Gulf outflows, the Straits of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman, that open up to the Arabian Sea.

 Today, most commonly used Arabic works refer to the South Iranian Sea as the Persian Gulf, including the internationally famous Arabic encyclopaediaAl-Monjad, which is the most reliable source on the subject.

Information on the Red Sea from here

Besides all of the disputes which were made about the Persian Gulfs name, on two occasions, the United Nations, along with the United Nations 22 Arab Member States, formally declared to be an irrevocable name for the sea between Iran and the Arabian peninsula, by the Government of Iran, the Persian Gulf.

 For Arabs, changing the Persian Gulf This body of water is a crime against the state. 

The dispute reached its peak in May, when the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council said calling the water Persian Gulf was mocking history, since the Arab presence in this area dates back 3000 years, whereas Persian presence dates back only to the time of the Safavid Empire (1501-1736 CE).

There were also diplomatic protests when Pariss Louvre Museum left out Persian from mentioning this water strip in their tour guide. 

The Iranians were so sensitive about it that copies of The Economist were banned in Iran in 2006, when the magazine dropped Persian epithets for the Persian Gulf. 

The Economists was banned from the country because it dropped Persian by labelling it simply as Gulf.

However, starting in the 1960s--and related to rising nationalism--the Arab states began calling the watershed The Arabian Gulf (al-Khaleej al-Arabi in Arabic). 

The Greek historian Herodotus, in his book The Story of Herodotus, 440 BC, has referred repeatedly to the Red Sea as the Arabian Gulf.

Iraqs outlet to the Gulf is narrow and easily blocked, consists of a marshy river delta, Shatt al-Arab, carrying the waters of Euphrates and Tigris rivers, with the left (east) bank held by Iran.

 Sitting on a fence does not impress Iranians when it comes to that stretch of water.