Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage has sent an official letter to the Director-General of UNESCO, calling on the UN agency to condemn Israel’s threat to attack the country’s railway system, Al Jazeera reports, citing the ISNA news agency.

The 1,394-kilometre-long trans-Iranian railway connecting the Caspian Sea in the northeast with the Persian Gulf in the southwest was recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2021 “for its scale, and the engineering works it required to overcome steep routes and other difficulties,” according to UNESCO’s website.

The minister described the threat as an attack on humanity’s common heritage and called for the UN agency to immediately adopt a clear stance to deter Israeli military action, ISNA reported.