UN, March 24. /TASS/. World Heritage sites across at least 15 countries, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey, are threatened by ongoing hostilities in the Middle East, UN News reported, citing UNESCO.
The organization said that since the military confrontation began on February 28, "unique sites of cultural significance" have been damaged in Iran, Israel, and Lebanon. UNESCO warned that "other sites are also at risk" across 15 countries in or near the region, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Cyprus.
UNESCO said it would "continue to communicate to all parties concerned the geographical coordinates of sites on the World Heritage List <…> to take all feasible precautions to avoid damage."
Earlier, the organization reported damage to several World Heritage sites in Iran, including the Golestan Palace, the Chehel Sotoun pavilion in the Persian Garden complex, the Masjed-e Jame mosque in Isfahan, and buildings located near the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley. Iranian authorities said more than 120 historical sites have been damaged in airstrikes, 43 of them in Tehran.
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.