“We are deeply concerned by the first impact that the hostilities are already having in the many World Heritage sites, for instance in Iran, where already four World Heritage sites have suffered from the consequence of the hostilities,” Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the agency’s World Heritage Centre, said in an interview.
The organization said it was continuing to assess damage and urged restraint as fighting escalates.
President Donald Trump wrote on social media this week that the United States would “take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again.”
The comments were widely interpreted as a threat against infrastructure and other soft targets.
Iran is home to 29 UNESCO World Heritage sites. Assomo said early assessments confirmed damage to four of them, though the full extent remains unclear.
“We don’t know the extent for the moment because we need to continue to check and verify,” he said. “But clearly, with the images that we have been able to receive, we can confirm the damage.”
Golestan Palace: 'Iranian Versailles'
Among the affected sites is Tehran’s Golestan Palace, which Assomo described as “a very important and outstanding palace” reflecting “the grandeur of Iran’s civilization in the 19th century.”
He noted its elaborate decorative features, including mirrored glasswork, and said it is sometimes compared with the Palace of Versailles in France.
The palace served as the Qajar dynasty’s royal residence and seat of power and illustrates the introduction of European styles into Persian arts. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s last monarch, held his coronation ceremony there in 1969.
Video images circulating online appear to show damage inside the palace, with piles of shattered glass, broken woodwork and debris scattered across its interior.
Elsewhere in Iran, Isfahan—once one of Central Asia’s most important cities and a major Silk Road hub—is home to the Masjed-e Jame, a mosque more than 1,000 years old that reflects the evolution of Islamic architecture across 12 centuries.
Assomo said UNESCO was also concerned about broader risks to cultural heritage across the region.
“Everything that tells the history of all the civilization of the 18 countries in the region—we’re talking about Iran but there are many, many others even in the Gulf countries—and we are calling for the protection of all of the sites and their importance,” he said.
