Excavation missions work in Iraq is being supervised, MOC

Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities clarified on Saturday, the details of the work of foreign excavation missions in Iraq while confirming that their attendance is subject to oversight and obtaining official and fundamental approvals.

”The excavation missions were originally working in agreement between the Iraqi side and the relevant authorities or countries, and in Iraq currently there are British, German, Italian and French missions," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture, Ahmed Al-Alawi, to the Iraqi News Agency - INA.

He noted that "the presence of missions in the field of investigation and excavation is evidence of rehabilitating the archaeological cultural,”

Al-Alawi explained, "The presence of this kind of international experts specialized in this excavation to Iraq means that there is sufficient space at the security and cultural levels and at the level of joint work," stressing that "these specialized experts are often affiliated with solid universities and important archaeological centers in the world. They work with Iraqi experts and specialists teams,”

”The missions are not only foreign, but are foreign - Iraqi, which means that the work is joint between our Iraqi experts and these missions as we monitor and follow up their work on a daily basis and confirm that there is no type of uncontrolled dealing," he highlighted.

He stressed that "there are a set of controls and standards that determine the work and timings, especially the timings that govern the discovery of an area and the exhumation of some archaeological pieces during excavations,”