U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed away from his threats to target Iranian cultural sites if Iran retaliates against the U.S. for killing one of its top generals.
After first tweeting the threat and later reiterating it to reporters as he flew back to Washington over the weekend, Trump retreated Tuesday, saying, "I like to obey the law.""Think of it," Trump said during an Oval Office appearance. "They kill our people. They blow up our people. And then we have to be very gentle with their cultural institutions?"
On Monday, Defence Secretary Mike Esper had distanced the Pentagon from Trump's threats to bomb Iranian cultural sites despite international prohibitions on such activity. It all began over the weekend when Trump tweeted Saturday that if Iran attacked any American assets to avenge the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the U.S. had 52 targets across the Islamic Republic that "WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD."Anger spread quickly across Iran, and Trump repeated the threat to reporters travelling with him as he flew back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his Florida resort.
Targeting cultural sites is a war crime under the 1954 Hague Convention for their protection. Separately, in 2017, the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning the destruction of heritage sites. Attacks by the Islamic State group and other armed factions in Syria and Iraq prompted that vote.
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