TEHRAN – Since Saturday night, U.S. President Donald Trump has come under fire for threating to target Iranian cultural sites by many international cultural figures, organizations, scholars, artists and politicians, and recently by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

ICOM and ICOMOS have issued a joint statement reiterating that both the United States and Iran are signatories to the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in armed conflict, U.S. News reported on Monday.

This follows Trump’s threat, made on Twitter on Saturday, to target 52 Iranian cultural sites, should there be any Iranian retaliation for the U.S. assassination of General Qassem Soleimani.

Andrea Prascow, the acting Washington director of Human Rights Watch, called on Trump on Sunday to ‘publicly reverse his threats against Iran’s cultural property and make clear that he will not authorize nor order war crimes’.

ICOM is the international organization of museums and museum professionals which is committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world's natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible.

ICOMOS works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places. It is the only global non-government organization of this kind, which is dedicated to promoting the application of theory, methodology, and scientific techniques to the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage.

AFM/MG