The fear of a U.S.-Iran war is in the air. After the U.S. drone strike on Friday that killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and response from the Iranian side, bellicose menaces are running wild. Even though President Donald Trump said the "USA wants no more threats," he has twice threatened to destroy Iranian cultural and historical sites, showing he is willing to go against international laws.

The first threat came when he said the U.S. had "targeted 52 Iranian sites" and that some were "at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets."

Later, he added that "they're allowed to kill our people (...), and we're not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn't work that way."

If the U.S. were to go forth with these threats, the attacks would be considered as war crimes under international law. Iran has 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites, two of them are natural heritage sites, namely the Hyrcanian Forests and the Lut Desert. Two other famous examples are ruins of the city of Persepolis, remnants of the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, which dates back to 518 BC, and the Historic City of Yazd.

John B. Bellinger, a former legal adviser for the Department of State and National Security Council at the White House, wrote on the Law Fare Blog that such an act would violate the 1954 Hague Convention on Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, which the Senate approved in September 2008. The ratification of the Hague Convention by the U.S. reflected the long-standing U.S. practice of not targeting cultural sites in wartime, he stressed.

It would also violate a U.N. Security Council resolution supported by the Trump administration in 2017, condemning the destruction of heritage sites after Isis attacks on the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and on the Mosul Museum in Iraq. This resolution also condemns looting and smuggling of cultural property and urges member states to develop broad law enforcement and judicial cooperation in preventing and countering trafficking in cultural property.

Speaking to CGTN Digital, professor Francisco José Leandro from City University of Macao stressed that all 24 Iranian sites listed by UNESCO are "subjected to special protection in case of war," in line with the Hague Convention. "Perhaps the most significant place is Persepolis, reportedly the most-visited historic site in Iran," he said, adding that "Persepolis was a ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire, completed by Darius I and given a place of prominence in architectural history courses across the world."

"The violations of these protective provisions are addressed by the immense body jurisprudence of national and internal courts, in most of the cases, classifying them as serious and especially grave breaches of customary law," indicated the scholar. 

Furthermore, "the federal law in the United States declares that violating these international conventions would constitute a war crime. Once again, the legal scholars around the world voiced that this is an act of inciting the public commission of a war crime or the public incitement to commit crimes against humanity depending of the context," said Leandro. 

Secretaries on 'crisis management' duty

Iran's reaction to these claims was clear: "no American military staff, no American political center, no American military base, no American vessel will be safe," Hossein Deghan, military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, told CNN.

"He doesn't know international law. He doesn't recognize UN resolutions either. Basically, he is a veritable gangster and a gambler," Dehghan said.

President Trump's declarations and tweets have once again left his secretaries with some heavy-duty "crisis management." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was the first one to address the issue, saying that any American strike following the event of retaliation by Iran, would have a "lawful target."

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper also faced questions by Pentagon reporters on whether he would be willing to target cultural sites, to which he answered: "We will follow the laws of armed conflict."

No back up from the UK

Across the pond, Britain's foreign secretary Dominic Raab took the diplomatic approach and didn't criticize Trump's declarations. But, according to The Guardian, opted to say: "We have been very clear that cultural sites are protected under international law, and we would expect that to be respected."

Raab echoed previous comments made by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman, who said there were "international conventions in place that prevent the destruction of cultural heritage." He also inferred that the UK didn't believe the threats would be carried out.

'Abhorrent' threat 

In a meeting with Ahmad Jalali, UNESCO ambassador of Iran, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay recalled both countries ratified conventions for the protection of cultural property. In a statement, UNESCO says the director stressed the universality of cultural and natural heritage as vectors of peace and dialogue, which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve for future generations.

The threats didn't sit well with the president and director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art either. In a statement available on Tweeter, MET president Daniel H. Weiss and director Max Hollein said that "the targeting of sites of global cultural heritage is abhorrent to the collective values of our society."

"At this challenging time, we must remind ourselves of the global importance of protecting cultural sites – the objects and places by which individuals, communities, and nations connect to their history and heritage," they noted.

Implications

"Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should learn the domestic and international law rules that govern the use of military force and the conduct of military operations," said John B. Bellinger.

The former adviser warned that if the U.S. "violates or skirts international law regarding the use of force, it encourages other countries" to do the same, without the possibility of criticizing their actions.

Besides, "it also makes our friends and allies who respect international law - such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and the EU countries - less likely to work with us."

Protecting cultural heritage during war

Francisco José Leandro explained that the Hague Convention of 1907 clearly states that "all necessary steps must be taken" to spare "buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected."

In addition, "the Geneva Convention Protocol I, signed in 1949 and amended in 1977, renders unlawful 'any acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples.'"

"Furthermore, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954) was the first international treaty that focused exclusively on the protection of cultural property in armed conflict." 

For the academic, "existing legal tools that deal with acts involving heritage destruction are enough. Unfortunately, accountability tools, especially the ones related to international mechanisms, leave a lot to be desired."

According to an article from Professor Craig Forrest from University of Queensland, in World Politics Review, obliteration and extensive damage of historic sites during the both World Wars led to the creation of the Hague Convention, which supplemented Geneva Conventions providing a protection regime that would not only address rights and duties of states relating to cultural property before, during and after an armed conflict.

But that didn't stop further cultural destruction in following conflicts, for example in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and the former Yugoslavia. Forrest indicates that the placement of Iraqi fighter planes near the archaeological site of the Temple of Ur during the Persian Gulf War was a violation, just like the U.S. shouldn't have established a military base on the archaeological site of the ancient city of Babylon during the Iraq War.

(With input from Reuters)