TEHRAN, Jan. 17 (Mehr News Agency) -- Iran has lost its right to hold the 2nd Islamic Solidarity Games scheduled for April.

Islamic Solidarity Games Federation (ISSF) located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, asked the Iranians to remove the words "Persian Gulf" from the medals and brochures but they declined.

Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea are engraved on the medals designed by Iran for the games

Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries disapproved the use of the term "Persian Gulf" on the literature and medals of the games and insisted the term "Arabian Gulf" or just "Gulf" be used instead.

All medals were engraved with the historically acknowledged name of Persian Gulf.

The second Islamic Solidarity Games was originally scheduled for October 16 to 30, 2009 but the competitions were postponed due to the swine flu scare.

The 2nd Islamic Solidarity Games will be held from April 9 to 25, 2010 but the host country has yet to be announced.

... Payvand News - 01/17/10 ... --