Israeli and U.S. military strikes on Iran, occurring since June 13, 2025, have threatened significant damage to the country's cultural heritage. Israeli bombings targeted the headquarters of the Iranian state broadcaster (IRIB) in Tehran, a major work of Modern architecture designed by the firm of renowned Iranian architect Abdol Aziz Farmanfarmaian. U.S. bombings over the weekend struck a nuclear complex near Isfahan, one of Iran's most historically significant cities, though its historic landmarks appear unscathed. The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA), designed by Kamran Diba and home to a major collection of modern Western art, is also a source of concern.
This matters because the strikes highlight the vulnerability of cultural heritage during geopolitical conflict, especially in a country with millennia of architectural and artistic history. Isfahan, a UNESCO-recognized city that was the capital of the Seljuq and Safavid dynasties, contains irreplaceable monuments like the Masjed-e Jāmé (Friday mosque), the oldest preserved mosque in Iran. The potential loss or damage to such sites would represent an irreversible blow to world heritage, underscoring the need for international protections for cultural property even amid military operations.