PARIS, March 13. /TASS/. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has received reports about damage to World Heritage sites in Iran in the course of current escalation in the Middle East, a UNESCO spokesperson told TASS.

"Since 28 February, the Organization has received several concurring reports on damages to several World Heritage sites: at the Golestan Palace; at the Chehel Sotun pavilion of the Persian Garden property; at the Masjed-e Jame’ of Isfahan; as well as on buildings in a museum complex located near the buffer zone of the Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley. Other sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in the region may also have been affected, including the archaeological site of Tyre in Lebanon," the spokesman said.

The Organization reiterated "its deep concern regarding the protection of culture in the context of escalating hostilities in the Middle East and beyond."

"UNESCO continues to closely monitor the situation of cultural and natural heritage across the region, with 18 countries concerned and 125 World Heritage properties considered to be at risk. To this end, the Organization has communicated the geographic coordinates of all these sites to the relevant parties,"

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.