ASOR SPEAKS OUT IN DEFENSE OF IRAN’S CULTURAL HERITAGE
In light of President Trump’s recent threats to Iranian cultural sites, ASOR President Sharon Herbert has issued the following statement. She has also signed on behalf of ASOR a letter to the New York Times deploring these threats.
In accord with ASOR’s mission to support efforts to protect, preserve, and present to the public the historic and cultural heritage of the Near East and the wider Mediterranean and to raise awareness of its degradation, ASOR strongly protests U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to intentionally target Iranian cultural heritage sites.
The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, ratified by the USA in 2009, and the U.S. Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual (paragraph 5.18.5.1) both prohibit the intentional destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict except in situations when targeting is imperative for a legitimate military goal.
ASOR calls upon President Trump and the U.S. Department of Defense to avoid harm to the cultural heritage of Iran.
