Dismay as ancient heritage sites across Iran damaged in US-Israel bombing | Iran

The governor of Iran’s historic city of Isfahan accused the United States and Israel of “declaring war on a civilisation” as heritage sites across the country were damaged in bombing campaigns.

The most serious damage confirmed to date occurred at Tehran’s 14th-century Golestan Palace and Isfahan’s 17th-century Chehel Sotoon Palace.

Judging by videos and public statements, none of the historic buildings were directly hit by a missile, but the shock wave from nearby explosions and possibly some missile debris shattered glass and destroyed tiles and walls.

Video from the scene showed the Golestan Palace’s famous mirror hall shattering, with intricate mirror shards scattered across the floor.

The palace is a world heritage site under the protection of Unesco, the UN’s cultural agency. published a statement It caused concern by saying that “the geographical coordinates of the sites on the world heritage list have been communicated to all relevant parties” after it was damaged on March 2.

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi criticized UNESCO for not speaking out louder, saying on social media: “Its silence is unacceptable.”

Araghchi blamed Israel for the damage, which he accused of “bombing Iran’s historical monuments dating back to the 14th century.”

“It is natural for a regime that cannot last a century to hate nations with ancient history.” added to x.

One of the damaged places was the Falak-ol-Aflak Fortress in Khorramabad city of Lorestan province. An attack on the perimeter of the castle on Sunday destroyed the department’s offices and adjacent archeology and anthropology museums and injured five staff, according to Ata Hassanpour, head of the province’s heritage department.

“Fortunately, the main structure of the Falak-ol-Aflak Fortress was not damaged,” Hassanpour said in a statement published on the Telegram messaging platform.

Cultural treasures in Iran’s northwestern Kurdistan province were also affected, according to local media reports. It was stated that in the country’s second largest Kurdish city, InSanandaj, the doors and intricate stained glass windows of the 19th-century Salar Saeed and Asef Vaziri mansions, which serve as Kurdish museums and heritage sites, were damaged.

Major explosions have occurred in the last few days in the center of Isfahan, Iran’s capital of three historical eras, where much of its architecture dates back to the Safavid dynasty period from the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Chehel Sotoon suffered the worst impact, but windows and doors were reported broken and tiles dislodged in Ali Qapu Palace and many mosques around the large Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Videos taken from inside the square by residents show smoke rising from nearby air strikes.

Isfahan Governor Mehdi Jamalinejad said the damage occurred even after the coordinates of historical sites were distributed among the warring parties and blue shield signs indicating protected historical treasures. 1954 Hague convention They were placed on the roofs of important buildings to protect cultural objects during the war.

In his speech published on social media, Jamalinejad said, “Isfahan is not an ordinary city, it is a museum without a roof.” “Not in any previous era, not in the Afghan wars, not in the Mongol conquest, not in the ‘sacred defence’. [the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war] Has this ever been done?

“This is a declaration of war against civilization,” he added. “An enemy without culture does not care about cultural symbols. A country without history does not respect the traces of history. A country without identity does not value identity.”

An Iranian geologist who worked in Isfahan for many years said in a message to the Guardian that the ancient capital was particularly vulnerable.

“Isfahan has long been attacked from below due to land subsidence that destroyed Safavid-era structures, and now it is attacked from above by the Americans,” the geologist said. “Isfahan seems to have fewer friends today than ever.”

U.S. Blue Shield Committee, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the Hague Convention, published a statement He stated that Iran’s historical sites “belong not only to the Iranian people, but to all humanity.”

The organization said it was “disturbed” by the US defense secretary’s “stupid” statement that there would be no rules of engagement on the third day of the war, and warned that ignoring international and US laws on the conduct of hostilities could lead to “the commission of war crimes”.

“The destruction of cultural heritage is irreversible,” the statement said. “It erases identity, history and the collective memory of civilizations. No military or political purpose can justify the deliberate or negligent destruction of the common heritage of humanity.”