Heritage group asks UNESCO to intervene over road work in Iran’s Lut Desert

An independent heritage archive has asked UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre to seek “urgent clarification” from Iran over road construction through the kaluts of the Lut Desert, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which Iranian environmental reports attribute to the private carrier Mahan Air.

The Forensic Archive of Iran said on X that a local desert guide had posted photographs and testimony attributing the works to Mahan Air, and that the new road runs parallel to the existing Shahdad–Birjand route.

The archive is an independent, volunteer-led project founded in 2025 by Romina Frohar, a Britain-based researcher, to document threats to Iranian cultural and natural heritage.

It asked the World Heritage Centre to clarify whether Iranian authorities had reported the works, assessed their location and impact against the site’s boundaries, and what steps would prevent further damage. Urgent Matter could not independently locate the guide’s original post or verify the photographs it described.

The claims follow months of reporting by Iranian outlets covering the Lut.