US President Donald Trump’s new threat to strike 52 important targets in Iran, including the cultural ones, has provoked a strong backlash, with many calling it a “war crime.”
On Saturday, Trump said on Twitter that his military would hit “very important” targets related to Iran if the Iranians attempted to take retaliatory action against the US for the assassination of a senior military commander.
Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani , the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were assassinated in US airstrikes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Friday.
Trump’s threat came after Iranian authorities said they would show a harsh response to the US strikes.
Reacting to Trump’s tweet later on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also took to his official Twitter account reminding Trump that although “barbarians have come and ravaged our cities, razed our monuments and burnt our libraries” throughout history, Iranians still stand tall.
Zarif also drew an analogy between Trump’s assertions and Daesh’s crimes in destroying cultural heritage of some regional countries, noting that the US president is “hallucinating about emulating ISIS war crimes by targeting our cultural heritage.”
A reminder to those hallucinating about emulating ISIS war crimes by targeting our cultural heritage:
Through MILLENNIA of history, barbarians have come and ravaged our cities, razed our monuments and burnt our libraries.
Where are they now?
We’re still here, & standing tall. — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 5, 2020
Many social media users were quick to say that deliberately attacking cultural sites would be a war crime.
Attacking civilian locations, like cultural sites, is a War Crime. — David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) January 4, 2020
