Iran Press/ Iran news: Speaking at the Forum on Preservation of Cultural Sites in Tehran on Monday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said: "In 2001, extremists blew up Buddha statues in Bamyan. ISIS terrorists destroyed the cultural heritage of Iraq and Syria including Mosul, Nineveh, Palmyra, etc, in 2014 and 2015. Now the US President Donald Trump is not only threatening Iran with an armed attack but also publicly speaking about attacking Iran's historical and cultural sites."
Donald Trump had threatened Iran by saying the US would target 52 sensitive sites of the Islamic Republic, including cultural sites if Iran carries out its promised revenge attack for the US assassination of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Trump’s threat was widely condemned both inside and outside of the United States.
"The US President's threat to destroy Iranian cultural and civilization centers is international cultural terrorism and a continued US' act of breaking laws to break the Iranian people's resistance," said the Foreign Minister, giving the example of the US' economic terrorism in this regard, adding that it has explicitly targeted the Iranian people's food and medicine supplies.
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He went on to say that the US' Secretary of State declares in a criminal act against humanity that "if Iran wants its people to have food, they must obey us."
"However, the agreement of the international community to protect the heritage and cultural sites, whether in peace or in war, is itself a great intangible and common global heritage," Zarif added.
Iranian Foreign Minister also appreciated all the institutions that have taken responsibility for preserving cultural sites and tried hard to hold the forum.
Forum on the Preservation of Cultural Sites kicked off on Monday at the National Library of Iran.
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