TEHRAN - Facing an ongoing Israeli air campaign, Iran has undertaken an unprecedented emergency operation to safeguard its most valuable cultural treasures.

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts confirmed the completion of this critical mission on the evening of Friday, June 14th, successfully transferring its most significant museum artifacts to high-security storage facilities.

This urgent action was precipitated by unannounced Israeli airstrikes targeting multiple locations across Iran, which commenced on Thursday, June 13th.

The sheer scale of Iran's cultural landscape now under threat underscores the necessity of this evacuation. With approximately 840 museums operating nationwide, about 300 of which are directly administered by the Ministry, the potential for catastrophic loss is immense.

Recent Israeli attacks on cities like Isfahan, Khorramabad and Kermanshah, renowned for their dense concentration of historical monuments and archaeological sites, have generated profound alarm among cultural heritage authorities. The continuation of these strikes places museums, ancient sites, and historical monuments at severe and immediate risk. Iranian officials explicitly cited "profound distrust in Tel Aviv’s adherence to wartime regulations" as the catalyst for the emergency measures, further emphasizing that UNESCO classifies deliberate assaults on such cultural heritage as war crimes.

The evacuation focused exclusively on artifacts designated as "high-priority protected items". While these select treasures are now housed in maximum-security facilities, the vast majority of museum and cultural heritage sites remain exposed and face immediate danger as Israeli attacks reportedly expand to encompass non-military targets across the country.

Given the Israeli military's pattern of deliberately destroying cultural heritage sites in Gaza, it appears this practice could potentially be repeated in Iran by the same forces. Over 226 archaeological/historical sites in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023, including the Great Omari Mosque (7th century CE), Church of Saint Porphyrius (12th century CE), and the ancient port of Anthedon (800 BCE).

Parallel Israeli strikes on Iran now directly threaten millennia-old Persian heritage, compounding existing environmental risks. Protecting these sites demands urgent global action—treating cultural heritage as a non-negotiable pillar of human dignity.

AM