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Defense Secretary Contradicts Trump, Says U.S. Won’t Target Iranian Cultural Sites

The Pentagon boss says the U.S. will follow “the laws of armed conflict” after the president threatened to go after “very high level & important” cultural sites.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper shot down the possibility of the U.S. targeting cultural sites in Iran, despite President Trump’s threats to do so if the conflict between the two countries escalates. “We will follow the laws of armed conflict,” Esper told reporters Monday, according to The New York Times. Asked if that means that the U.S. won’t target cultural sites, he replied, “That’s the laws of armed conflict.” Trump previously tweeted that potential targets the U.S. identified included sites that were “very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture” and proclaimed that they were fair game. “They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site?” Trump told reporters on his way back to D.C. after his winter holiday in Florida. “It doesn’t work that way.”