Trump threatened Iranian cultural sites; his defense secretary publicly drew the legal line
Superseded evidence record · Open correction
Reporting and findings
- documentedSuperseded · open corrected record
Defense Secretary Mark Esper responded that U.S. forces would follow the law of armed conflict governing cultural sites.
- U.S. Department of Defense: U.S. Continues to Deploy, Reposition Troops in Middle East, Esper SaysEsper remarks on law of armed conflict and cultural sites
- documentedSuperseded · open corrected record
Trump publicly threatened 52 Iranian targets, including some he described as important to Iranian culture, after Iran warned of retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani.
- U.S. Government Publishing Office: U.S.-Iran Tensions: Implications for Homeland Security, hearing before the House Committee on Homeland SecurityHearing record reproducing the January 4 threat and discussing cultural-property law
Summary and current status
Trump threatened 52 Iranian targets, including sites he described as important to Iranian culture. Defense Secretary Mark Esper then said U.S. forces would follow the law of armed conflict governing cultural sites. This entry records a threat of potentially prohibited conduct, not an attack on a cultural site.
People and organizations
- Iranian cultural sites threatened in January 2020potential targets named in the threat
- Donald J. Trumpspeaker threatening strikes
Relationships in this file
- Donald J. Trumpthreatened to strikeIranian cultural sites threatened in January 2020
Figures
Threats of potentially prohibited conduct1 statement Calculation details
- Basis
- Observed
- Population
- Trump's January 4, 2020 statement threatening targets including culturally important sites
- Period
- 2020-01-04 to 2020-01-04
- Method
- Counted the cited statement once as a threat of potentially prohibited conduct; no actual cultural-site strike is counted.
- Uncertainty
- The statement named 52 total targets but did not identify how many were cultural sites, so no target-site count is reported.