A series of blue-and-white shields unfurled atop buildings throughout Iran are intended as a message to American and Israeli targeteers.
Photos of the symbol placed on rooftops and alongside heritage sites were circulated by Iranian state media on March 10 along with reports that "more than 120 museums and several historic buildings" throughout Iran have been marked with the emblem.
Officially known as the Blue Shield, Iran's cultural heritage chief Mohsen Tousi told Iranian media the symbol had been deployed "to safeguard valuable cultural and historical assets."
The blue shield emblem was created during the 1954 Hague Convention to protect cultural property during conflicts. The symbol is intended to indicate a heritage object in the same way the red cross symbol indicates a humanitarian facility.
The shield symbol never gained the ubiquity of the red cross, but in 1996 the Blue Shield organization was founded to champion the ideals of wartime heritage preservation symbolized by the 1954 emblem.
Peter Stone is the President of the Blue Shield organization. He told RFE/RL seeing the symbol being used in Iran is "very positive" but pointed out that his organization has no control over use of the emblem.
Additionally, there is no mechanism in place to verify whether legitimate Iranian military targets are being marked with the symbol.
"In modern warfare, it is realistically a fairly pointless exercise to put a big emblem on the roof of a museum," Stone says, adding that many modern militaries have their own secret "no strike" lists.
However, he says, such clear marking of heritage sites, "does add an additional layer of responsibility on anybody attacking to take that emblem and its protection seriously." If deployed on a legitimate cultural site without any military use, the British heritage expert says the emblem potentially has some legal weight given its "protection comes through the [1954 Hague convention]" which both Israel and the US ratified.
In previous conflicts, including during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the blue shield emblem was used, often with rooftop paintings large enough to be visible to aviation and drone pilots. Some buildings featuring the emblem were damaged in the conflict, while others were not. Stone says has been impossible to know the real world impact of the emblem since decision making over targeting takes place behind a wall of military secrecy.
Post-conflict, Stone says, fair use of the shield symbol can add "an additional piece of ammunition to the potential prosecution of people who do attack without any military necessity."
Stone admits the concept of international law that the blue shield is based on is in a flimsy state today, but he says, "we have to keep it going," if not he says, "nobody will be held to account."
