Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Iraq wants all US-stolen archeological treasures back

Press TV – July 16, 2012

Iraq says it wants back all the archeological treasures, stolen by US forces in 2003, but Washington has offered to return only half.

Iraq rejected the offer made by the United States to bring back half of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, previously transferred from Baghdad to the United States during the US-led invasion of the country, insisting that Baghdad had to restore the whole archive, Iraqi newspaper al-Sabah reported on Sunday.

The archive includes centuries-old Torah scrolls and plenty of other documents in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.

Iraqi Tourism and Archaeology Minister Liwaa Smaisim reiterated that “it (the Iraqi Jewish Archive) is part of the Iraqi heritage,” the ministry’s media office chief Hakim al-Shammari quoted him as saying.

On June 11, Smaisim said that the US had transferred the archive to Israel in addition to about 1,000 Iraqi antiquities.

The information angered archeologists and officials who accuse Washington of looting Iraq’s cultural heritage, and dissuaded Iraqi authorities from continuing cultural cooperation with the US.

“The ministry recently suspended cooperation with the American universities and their excavation missions in the country,” the Iraqi minister added.

July 15, 2012 - Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | , , ,

2 Comments »

  1. You will have some hard times ahead of you but I wish the Archeologists of Iraq the best of luck who will have to deal with all the thief’s.

    Like

    B.Benhamid's avatar Comment by B.Benhamid | July 15, 2012 | Reply

  2. Wasn’t it enough to allow the massive looting of museums? in addition to carpet bombing the Cradle of Civilization with depleted uranium, the US’s ‘shock & awe’ attempted to destroy ancient Iraqi culture with theft of valuable antiques.

    I find it hard to believe the US will comply, better to take the 1/2 they offer than the nothing US is willing to return.

    Like

    ruby22-kate's avatar Comment by ruby22-kate | July 17, 2012 | Reply


Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.