What geological events lead to the formation of the Persian Gulf basin?

When you look at the Persian Gulf in a space photo, you can clearly see a deformation on the Persian side of the Gulf, and a completely plateau on the Arabian side. Moreover, you could see that Qatar was sort of "ripped off" from the Arabian Coast, and can be neatly tucked back onto the coastline, together with Bahrain. This is the picture:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_Gul...

What are the major events that lead to the formation of the basin and Qatar and Bahrain? One could make the mistake of saying that the shape of the Gulf follows a river-like geography, especially with Hermez Strait, but to me it looks like more of a mini-rift, followed by even smaller rifts to form Qatar. Though I don't know where Bahrain comes from :)

What geological events lead to the formation of the Persian Gulf basin?globe theater

As far as I know, and been told, it is a foreland basin. Basically, the gulf is depressed from the loading of the mountains.

This is a modern analog of the North American Cretaceous Interior Seaway.

What geological events lead to the formation of the Persian Gulf basin?

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