MOC: Iraq is not responsible for marshes drying, UNESCO to appeal to neighboring countries

 
INA – BAGHDAD
 
Ministry of Culture – MOC confirmed on Monday, that Iraq is not responsible for the drying up of the marshes, while indicating the possibility that UNESCO will take the initiative to help Iraq by appealing to neighboring countries to release water quotas in terms of reducing the damage.
 
"Iraq is not responsible for the drying up of the marshes, and this is called a danger beyond our control, as we are not the ones who caused the damage," said the Director-General of the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, Iyad Kadhim, in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
 
He added, "There is a possibility that UNESCO will take the initiative to help Iraq by appealing to neighboring countries to release water quotas to reduce damage," explaining that "if the marshes dried up, this does not mean that they will be removed from the heritage list because their inclusion was not based on the presence of water in it, but because of the presence of archaeological sites,”
 
"The issue of voting to raise any World Heritage site is more complex than voting to place it among the world's sites," he noted, stressing "UNESCO withdraws the sites from the World Heritage in the event that the state used the site in projects that harmed the site itself,"