In Iran, several cultural sites, including Golestan Palace, Chehel Sotoun Palace, Masjed-e Jame mosque in Isfahan, and buildings near the Prehistoric Sites of the Khorramabad Valley, have been damaged amid the ongoing conflict. UNESCO has also reported damage to Israel’s White City of Tel-Aviv and Tyre in Lebanon, and warns that numerous other World Heritage sites across Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Türkiye, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen remain at risk. The UN agency continues to communicate the locations of these sites to all parties to encourage precautions and minimize further destruction.
The deteriorating security situation is also disrupting education, science, and media across the region, putting students, teachers, researchers, and education infrastructure in danger. UNESCO has highlighted the immediate risks to learning and research, stressing that damage to these institutions weakens the social fabric and hampers long-term recovery, dialogue, peace, and stability. Continued violence could trigger a deeper learning crisis, characterized by greater exclusion of vulnerable children, loss of educators, diminished public trust, and lasting harm to scientific and educational capacities. Protecting schools, universities, and research institutions is therefore essential not only for humanitarian reasons but also for sustaining the region’s future resilience and development.
