Lebanon’s Ministry of Culture has appealed to UNESCO to provide additional protection for the nation’s cultural heritage as the U.S.–Israel–Iran conflict spills into its southern borders.
According to a ministry statement on Wednesday, Culture Minister Ghassan Salamé spoke by phone with Khaled El-Enany, director-general of UNESCO, urging the United Nations agency to intervene on Lebanon’s behalf.
The minister reportedly told El-Enany: “In light of the current security situation in Lebanon and in the region, [we ask you] to intervene with neighboring states or belligerent parties to remind them of the need to take all preventive measures, during this armed conflict with Lebanon, to protect and preserve Lebanese cultural heritage and refrain from targeting it.”
Ghassan Salamé directly appealed for greater protection of the National Museum of Beirut, a repository of thousands of years of Mediterranean history, as well as Lebanon’s archaeological and historical sites, including Baalbek, a triad of Imperial Roman temples and UNESCO World Heritage Site; the eighth-century city of Anjar; and the Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley), one of the earliest and most important Christian monastic settlements in the world.
A UNESCO spokesperson told Ocula that the agency “is already supporting Lebanon, as the organisation has communicated to all parties concerned the geographical coordinates of sites on the World Heritage List as well as those of national significance, to avoid any potential damage.”
This week, Israel renewed airstrikes on Lebanon—including heavy bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs—as tensions flare across the Levant amid an intensifying regional conflict involving Israel, Iran‑aligned Hezbollah, the US, and other Gulf states. Tens of thousands of Lebanese are fleeing Israel‑ordered mass evacuations of the country’s southern region and parts of Beirut, a move the United Nations has warned may violate international law. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said the country now faces “a humanitarian disaster,” with displaced people forced to sleep in cars, on beaches, or on the streets. Reuters reports that at least 200 people in Lebanon have been killed while roughly 700 have been wounded.
In April 2024, UNESCO granted enhanced protection to 34 historic Lebanese sites after an Israeli airstrike landed perilously close to the Roman ruins of Baalbek, sending thick plumes of black smoke across the site. Following weeks of appeals from Lebanese cultural authorities for international action—particularly on behalf of Baalbek and Tyre, two of the six Lebanese sites inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List—the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict granted the protection measures.
At the time, former UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said, “UNESCO has a deep and long-standing cooperation with Lebanon. We will spare no effort to provide all the expertise and assistance needed to protect its exceptional heritage.”
