Editing Persian Gulf (section)

===Modern history===
[[File:USS Hawes (FFG-53), USS William H. Standley (CG-32) and USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7) escort tanker Gas King in the Persian Gullf on 21 October 1987 (6432283).jpg|thumb|[[Operation Earnest Will]]: Tanker convoy No. 12 under [[United States Navy|US Navy]] escort in October 1987]]
The Persian Gulf was a battlefield of the 1980–1988 [[Iran–Iraq War]], in which each side attacked the other's [[oil tanker]]s. It is the namesake of the 1991 [[Gulf War]], the largely air- and land-based conflict that followed [[Iraq]]'s invasion of [[Kuwait]]. The United States' role in the Persian Gulf grew in the second half of the 20th century.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncfIAAAAQBAJ|title=The Persian Gulf in History|last=Potter|first=L.|date=2009-01-05|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-0-230-61845-9|language=en}}</ref> On 3 July 1988, [[Iran Air Flight 655]] was shot down by the U.S. military (which had mistaken the [[Airbus A300]] operating the flight for an Iranian [[Grumman F-14 Tomcat|F-14 Tomcat]]) while it was flying over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19880703-0|title=ASN Aircraft accident Airbus A300B2-203 EP-IBU Qeshm Island|last=Ranter|first=Harro|website=www.aviation-safety.net|access-date=2020-01-11}}</ref> The United Kingdom maintains a profile in the region; in 2006 alone, over 1&nbsp;million British nationals visited [[Dubai]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/24/foreignpolicy.iran|title=Blair was dangerously off target in his condemnation of Iran|last=Beaumont|first=Peter|date=23 December 2006|work=[[The Guardian]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160730023813/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/dec/24/foreignpolicy.iran|archive-date=2016-07-30|url-status=live|location=[[London]]|author-link=Peter Beaumont (journalist)}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-bahrain-britain-diplomacy/classified-document-on-bahrain-rankles-britain-decades-later-idUKKBN0O61YZ20150521|title=Classified document on Bahrain rankles Britain decades later|date=22 May 2015|access-date=22 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130051916/https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-bahrain-britain-diplomacy/classified-document-on-bahrain-rankles-britain-decades-later-idUKKBN0O61YZ20150521|archive-date=2022-01-30|url-status=live|work=Reuters|quote=The case shows how alive the history of British colonial rule still is in the Gulf today}}</ref> In 2018, the UK opened a permanent military base, {{HMS|Jufair}}, in the Persian Gulf, the first since it withdrew from [[East of Suez]] in 1971 and is developing a support facility in Oman.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30355953|title=UK to establish £15m permanent Mid East military base|date=6 December 2014|access-date=2018-06-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171124233435/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30355953|archive-date=2017-11-24|url-status=live|publisher=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/sites/default/files/ORGDec14EastSuezWestHelmand_0.pdf|title=East of Suez, West from Helmand: British Expeditionary Force and the next SDSR|date=December 2014|publisher=Oxford Research Group|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702074143/http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/sites/default/files/ORGDec14EastSuezWestHelmand_0.pdf|archive-date=2 July 2015|access-date=22 May 2015|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/the-uk-in-oman-a-new-support-facility-for-the-british-armed-forces/|title=The UK in Oman – A new support facility for the British Armed Forces|last=Tossini|first=J. Vitor|date=2018-02-20|website=UK Defence Journal|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-04-10}}</ref>