A Greek flight attendant who worked at an Iranian domestic airline has been expelled following a disagreement with a number of in-flight passengers as to the proper name for the Persian Gulf.

An employee with local Kish Airlines, the attendant reportedly engaged in a heated verbal debate during a flight from Tehran to Kish last Friday. The attendant is also alleged to have threatened the passengers with arrest according to local police authorities.

The row stemmed from the airline’s in-flight monitor screen display showing that the Gulf waterway in question was named the Arabian Gulf. Passengers brought the matter to the attention of the flight attendant and the protest quickly descended into argument. Iranian immigration authorities decided to cancel the residency permit and expel the attendant due to his irresponsible and inappropriate behaviour.

Hamid Behbahani, The Iranian Transport Minister, went one step further and called for the entire crew to be prohibited from working in Iran ever again as they did not respect the conventions governing Iranian air space. The Iranian republic demands that the body of water that separates the Iranian plateau and the Arabian Peninsula be called the Persian Gulf. He also called for a remand to be given to Kish Airlines management for allowing such an incident to occur. Several domestic airlines in Iran use partial or completely foreign crews.