MANAMA: The Kingdom of Bahrain has been at the forefront of the efforts aimed at saving the heritage sites in war ravaged Iraq and Syria.
“The Kingdom of Bahrain has extended support for capacity building and training for the staff aimed at helping to preserve the UNESCO heritage sites in Syria and Iraq,” Mounir Bouchenaki, Director, Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH), Bahrain, said.
Praising the leadership of Shaikha Mai Al Khalifa, Mounir said that Bahrain has been at the forefront of capacity building workshops for both officials from Syria and Iraq.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a presentation which Mounir conducted in presence of the diplomatic corps and Nejib Friji, Director, The International Peace Institute, Middle East and North Africa (IPI MENA).
Mounir believes the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East starting from the civil war in Lebanon, Israeli shelling of Lebanese cultural sites, destruction of Museums in Iraq, elimination of city after city in Syria and bombing of Buddha statue in Afghanistan, names a few, are deliberate attempts to wipe out the identity of the Middle East from the global heritage map.
He said that the conflict with Yemen has brought yet another misery to already dwindling future of the UNESCO heritage sites in the MENA region.
“We have reports that during the bombing against Houthi Rebels rare sites in Sana’aa were also hit and the historically important cultural heritage were damaged,” he said.