Amnesty asks Trump to retract his threat to attack Iran cultural sites

LONDON: Amnesty International (AI) in a statement has criticized the United States President Donald Trump, over his plan to attack 52 Iranian sites, some of which are religious and cultural sites.

The human rights body has asked the US president to retract his statement.

AI has said the plan clearly violates the United Nations International Humanitarian Law, which could amount to a war crime.

“Deliberate attacks on civilian objects, including religious sites and cultural property, violate international humanitarian law and are war crimes,” AI said.

“President Donald Trump must retract his Iran threat and make a public commitment to abide by international law,” the human rights organization said.

Donald Trump in his January 04 statement had vowed to initiate the target 52 Iranian sites, some at a very high level and important to Iran and the Iranian culture.

The US President had warned Iran not to make any attempt to retaliate the killing of General Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian head of the military.

Since Soleimani was killed by the US government near Baghdad airport, the incident had caused an uprising among nations, particularly Arab countries. Trump, particularly claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran has however vowed to retaliate harshly.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Dehghan, military adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, responding to Trump said if the US targets 52, Iran would go after 300 locations in the US territory.