Iran is threatening to sue Google over the internet search giant's refusal to name a waterway on its map service.
Google appears to have left the stretch of water that separates Iran and the Gulf states blank on its Maps product.
While Arab states insist the waterway should be called the Arabian Gulf, Iran argues the proper and historic name is the Persian Gulf.
Iran's foreign minister Ramin Mehmanparast told the country's state TV service that Google now faced "serious damages" for omitting the Persian Gulf label, and that the act represented an act of "soft war" against the country.
"We have put on our agenda to make an official complaint against Google," he told state television.
The search engine claims that the stretch of water has never been named on Google Maps, and as such, Iranian anger was based on a "misunderstanding."
The omission of the name was labelled 'mischevious' by Bahman Dorri, deputy minister two weeks ago, reported The New York Times.
Google Earth, another mapping product from the company, reportedly names the body of water both the Persian and the Arabian Gulf.
National Geographic faced Iranian anger in 2004 after its world atlas was published with both names attached to the waterway.
In revenge, Iran created a page that says "The Gulf You Are Looking For Does Not Exist. Try Persian Gulf " whenever 'arabian gulf' is typed into google. It is still one of the first results to appear in Google search more than eight years later.