Gulf gathering aims to protect endangered heritage

Abu Dhabi

EXPERTS and government delegates from around the world will gather in the Gulf on Friday, seeking to build a global alliance to protect cultural heritage threatened by extremism and conflict.

France and the United Arab Emirates are leading the initiative at a conference in Abu Dhabi to establish an international partnership that could respond to dangers such as Islamic State group jihadists rampaging through ancient sites in Iraq and Syria. Appalling footage of IS using sledgehammers, bulldozers and explosives to erase ancient cultural sites - some of them millennia-old - that they deemed un-Islamic have spurred the calls for action.