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The US defense secretary denied that threatening to crack down on Iran's cultural heritage would com

CNN reported that US Defense Secretary esper said on the 6th that the United States would not target Iranian cultural relics. " We will abide by the law of armed conflict. "

When asked 'does it mean that [the United States] does not attack Iranian cultural relics', esper said:' this is the (International) law of armed conflict. '

Earlier, US President trump warned Iran that if Iran attacked us personnel or assets, the United States would hit 52 Iranian targets. He said that Iran "recklessly mentioned (attacked) specific U.S. asset targets", and the U.S. side "targeted 52 Iranian facilities", some of which "are crucial to Iran and Iranian culture, and those targets and Iran itself will be dealt a rapid and heavy blow".

However, Iranian foreign minister Zarif quickly responded that Trump's threat "violated international law". He warned trump on twitter that "the goal of cracking down on cultural relics is to commit war crimes." Zarif also condemned Trump's "despicable assassination" of Iranian general suleimani, who once again threatened to violate international law and hit Iran's cultural goal by crossing the red line again.

Trump then stated his position again. He said: 'they can use roadside bombs to kill our people, but don't let us touch their cultural relics? That doesn't make sense. "

CNN reported that US Secretary of state pompeio denied in a television interview on the 5th that trump said he would target Iran's cultural relics. At the same time, he also mentioned in the interview, 'if we need to defend American interests, we will do so'.

Under international law, targeting cultural monuments in military operations constitutes a war crime. The United Nations Security Council resolution and the 1954 Hague Convention on the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict have made such provisions.

CNN commented that trump threatened to crack down on Iranian cultural relics, which was criticized by many because it violated international law to crack down on cultural relics rather than military sites. Moreover, it has long been the policy of the U.S. military to avoid touching areas of cultural importance.

The report quoted two senior U.S. officials as saying that there is widespread opposition within the U.S. government to the threat to attack Iran's cultural relics. Source: People's daily