Dubai, UAE— Yemen and the US have signed an agreement to renews and extend protections for Yemeni cultural property that were put in place in 2020 on an emergency basis.
According to the US State Department, the deal was signed by US Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Lee Satterfield and Yemeni Ambassador to Washington Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, accompanied by the US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking.
“The signing of this agreement is a major milestone in the US-Yemen bilateral relationship and is a framework for cooperation between the two countries to combat cultural property trafficking, while encouraging its legal exchange for cultural, educational, and scientific purposes,” the State Department said.
“The agreement builds on the United States’ long-term collaboration to preserve Yemen’s cultural heritage through US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation grants to NGO partners totaling more than $550,000 and ranging from the restoration of historic buildings to the preservation of ancient manuscripts,” the statement said.
The US-Yemen cultural property agreement was negotiated by the State Department under the US law implementing the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
“With this agreement, Yemen joins 25 existing US bilateral cultural property agreement partners,” the department said. “In addition, US emergency import restrictions remain in place on cultural property from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.”
The agreement also builds on the Biden Administration’s support for a durable resolution to the Yemen conflict and reaffirms US support for Yemeni sovereignty, it said.
