UNESCO warns ‘priceless’ Iranian cultural heritage is being destroyed by war

The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, has issued a fresh warning over the fate of heritage sites in Iran amid the ongoing US-Israeli war, Euronews writes.

During a recent meeting between UNESCO and Lebanon’s Directorate General of Antiquities, officials also discussed immediate measures to strengthen the protection of vulnerable cultural properties across Iran.

Last week, UNESCO confirmed that “several sites of cultural significance” in the region have been reported as impacted and damaged in the war.

Among those damage are Tehran’s Golestan Palace, the Chehel Sotoun Palace in Isfahan, the Masjed-e Jame mosque in the same city, and the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley.

The head of Tehran city council’s heritage committee, Ahmad Alavi, said last week that airstrikes had damaged at least 120 culturally or historically significant sites across the country since the start of the war.

Iran is home to 29 UNESCO-listed sites.