UNESCO: "USA and Iran Must Not Destroy Each Other's Cultural Heritage"

Audrey Azoulay, Nominee for UNESCO Director-General. Photo by AFP Yonhap News

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has warned the United States and Iran not to destroy each other's cultural heritage. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, met with Ahmed Jalali, UNESCO Ambassador of Iran, at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on the 6th (local time) and reminded them that Iran and the United States are parties to international agreements prohibiting the intentional destruction of cultural heritage.

The international agreements mentioned by Director-General Azoulay are the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. The World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention states that “no deliberate measures should be taken to destroy cultural or natural heritage located on the territory of other contracting parties, either directly or indirectly.” Both the United States and Iran are parties to these two conventions. Azoulay is also reported to have referred to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2347, which condemns acts of cultural heritage destruction.

The remarks come amid rising tensions and the possibility of armed conflict between the two countries. On the 3rd, Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a key military figure in Iran, was killed in a U.S. airstrike at Baghdad Airport in Iraq. Iran has threatened retaliation, escalating tensions in the Middle East to a critical point. On the 4th, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to strike fifty sites, including places important to Iranian culture, if Iran retaliates. Iran, which claims to be the successor of the ancient Persian Empire, has twenty-four UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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