The United Nations’ cultural agency on Wednesday urged all parties to protect the region’s outstanding cultural sites

International News via Reuters:

UNESCO said it is deeply concerned about the fate of world heritage sites in Iran and across the region, after Tehran’s Golestan palace, often compared to Versailles, and a historic mosque and palace in Isfahan were damaged in the war.

The United Nations’ cultural agency on Wednesday urged all parties to protect the region’s outstanding cultural sites, saying four of Iran’s 29 world heritage sites had been damaged since the start of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran.

“UNESCO is deeply concerned by the first impact that the hostilities are already having on many world heritage sites,” Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the World Heritage Centre, told Reuters, adding he was also concerned for sites in Israel, Lebanon and across the Middle East.

Tehran’s Golestan palace, damaged in U.S.–Israeli strikes, is testimony to the grandeur of Iran’s civilization in the 19th century, he said.

The palace was chosen as the Persian royal residence and seat of power by the Qajar family and shows the introduction of European styles in Persian arts, according to the UNESCO website. The last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, held a coronation ceremony there in 1969.

“We sometimes even compare it with the Versailles Palace in France, for instance, and it has suffered, unfortunately, some damage. We don’t know the extent for the moment. But clearly, with the images that we have been able to receive, we can confirm … it has been affected,” Eloundou Assomo said.

Photos of the interior of the palace have shown piles of smashed glass and shards of wood on the floor, and shattered woodwork.

Isfahan was one of Central Asia’s most important cities and a key point on the Silk Road trading route. Its Masjed-e Jame (Jameh Mosque) is more than 1,000 years old and shows the development of Islamic art through 12 centuries.

Buildings close to the buffer zone of the prehistoric sites of the Khorramabad Valley have also been damaged, UNESCO said.

UNESCO has shared coordinates of key cultural sites to all parties, Eloundou Assomo said, and was monitoring damage.

“We are calling for the protection of all sites of cultural significance … everything that tells the history of all the civilisations of the 18 countries in the region,” he said.

Writing by Ingrid MelanderEditing by Alexandra Hudson

Aid supplies to Gaza and sub‑Saharan Africa are being affected by the conflict, as humanitarian relief that needs to travel through the Strait of Hormuz or through airspace in the Gulf has been largely blocked or constrained

International News via Reuters:

The United Nations aid chief warned on Wednesday that the conflict in the Middle East is straining humanitarian operations worldwide, disrupting supply chains and slowing the delivery of life‑saving assistance to numerous crisis zones.

“We are in a moment of grave peril for the Middle East and, actually I believe, for the wider world,” Tom Fletcher, the U.N. aid chief, told Reuters.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has expanded to Lebanon and dragged in Gulf countries, has convulsed global markets and disrupted supply chains, with airspace closures and the halt of shipping ​through the critical Strait of Hormuz. 

Fletcher said aid supplies to Gaza and sub‑Saharan Africa are being affected by the conflict, as humanitarian relief that needs to travel through the Strait of Hormuz or through airspace in the Gulf has been largely blocked or constrained.

Conflict-ridden Somalia, which is facing a major drought, and Sudan are among a number of countries facing dire humanitarian crises.

“These (constraints) will damage our humanitarian supply chains, reduce the humanitarian supplies we can get to people who need them, but they’ll also drive up energy costs and food costs across the region,” Fletcher said. 

“This really is a perfect storm of factors right now, and I’m seriously worried,” he stated.

There is particular concern for aid supplies to sub‑Saharan Africa, Flether said, which are being impacted by restricted movement through the Strait of Hormuz, with alternative routes slapped with rising freight costs. 

Higher oil prices are making the U.N.’s aid deliveries by air more expensive, at a time when UN agencies and NGOs budgets are already facing major donor cuts, Fletcher explained.

“We’ve just about put some money together to keep more of our UN humanitarian flights in the air, but they’ve suddenly, almost overnight, become much more expensive,” Fletcher said. 

Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, Editing by William Maclean

Leaders from around the Americas, including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Paraguay’s Santiago Pena have all flown in to Chile to attend the transfer of power ceremony

International News via Reuters:

Jose Antonio Kast is set to be sworn in as Chile’s next president on Wednesday, marking the country’s sharpest shift to the right in decades as the country follows the region’s recent conservative shift.

Leaders from around the Americas, including Argentina’s Javier Milei, Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Paraguay’s Santiago Pena have all flown in to Chile to attend the transfer of power ceremony in the coastal city of Valparaiso, where Congress is located.

Kast takes over from left-wing President Gabriel Boric, to whom he lost the 2021 election, at a time when Chileans are worried about rising crime and the economy.

Kast has promised to clamp down on migration and crime while boosting economic growth through deregulation, spending cuts and market-friendly policy. Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and Kast was elected during an economic upswing, but takes office as the Iran war rattles global markets.

The political transition also saw increased tensions between the incoming and outgoing administration over heightened pressure from the U.S. over a proposed Chinese undersea cable project.

“(Kast) will have to manage an increasingly challenging international geopolitical landscape,” said Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst from the University of Valparaiso, noting economic risks from the Iran war, the U.S.’ security strategy in the region and China’s influence in Latin America.

“These decisions will require sophisticated diplomacy and strategic medium- and long-term vision.”

Reporting by Alexander Villegas and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Aidan Lewis