The United Nations’ cultural agency is calling on governments to remember that cultural sites are not targets.
US President Donald Trump has recently tweeted that the United States would bomb Iranian cultural sites if Tehran retaliates for the America’s recent killing of a top Iranian general.
UNESCO’s director-general, Audrey Azoulay, says both the US and Iran have ratified treaties protecting cultural sites during war. She meets with the Iranian ambassador to the Paris-based organization on Monday.
Targeting cultural sites is a war crime under the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural sites.
Iran is home to two dozen UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They include including the ancient ruins of Persepolis, the grand mosque of Isfahan, and the Golestan Palace in Tehran, where the last shah to rule Iran was crowned in 1967.
— AP
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