WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's recent threat to strike Iranian sites of cultural significance if Tehran retaliates for the death of its high-ranking commander has drawn criticism at home.
Trump said on Saturday that the United States had targeted dozens of Iranian sites, and Iran will be hit "very fast and very hard" if it attacks any American or U.S. assets.
"We have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture," Trump tweeted on Saturday evening.
Trump's threatening tweet was a response to Iran's vow for revenge after Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Quds Force, was killed in the U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded via twitter that "a reminder to those hallucinating about emulating ISIS (the Islamic State) war crimes by targeting our cultural heritage: Through MILLENNIA of history, barbarians have come and ravaged our cities, razed our monuments and burnt our libraries. Where are they now? We're still here, & standing tall."
Trump justified the threat by highlighting alleged Iranian brutality against American people.
"They're allowed to kill our people. They're allowed to torture and maim our people. They're allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we're not allowed to touch their cultural site?" he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
"It doesn't work that way," he added.
Senior officials in the Trump administration scrambled to engage in the damage control. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday in an interview that U.S. actions would be within the law. The Pentagon chief Mark Esper on Monday ruled out military attacks on cultural sites in Iran, saying "we will follow the laws of armed conflict."
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an ally of Trump in the Congress, also said on Monday that he had raised concerns with Trump about the remarks in a call.
"Cultural sites, religious sites are not lawful targets under the law of war unless they've been weaponized by the enemy," Graham told reporters.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said on Monday that Washington had signed treaties pledging not to harm cultural heritage amid armed conflict, namely the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Experts suggested that Trump would violate international law if he carried out what he tweeted.
Nicholas Burns, former under-secretary of state for political affairs and now a professor at Harvard Kennedy School, said on twitter that "Trump's threat to destroy Iranian cultural sites would be a war crime under UN Security Council resolution 2347," which was supported by the Trump administration itself in 2017 to warn ISIS and al-Qaeda of similar actions.
"His threat is immoral and Un-American," Burns added.
In his tweet, Trump tied the number of the potential Iranian targets with the number of diplomats that Iran had detained during the Iran hostage crisis roughly four decades ago. However, even some then-hostages rejected Trump's threatening rhetoric.
John Limbert, one of the 52 Americans taken hostage by Iran in 1979, told MSNBC that "I certainly want no part of whatever decision he takes, for example killing people or blowing up Persepolis (a key Iranian cultural site)."
"Mr. President, if you are listening, please don't bother yourself on my account," the former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Iran said.
