Yemen’s gov’t and Combat Looting wants the US to repatriate cultural artifacts into an environment where they can be bombed into dust by Yemen’s Saudi allies. Will MoU promote “cultural property protection” or “destruction?”
Yemen is involved in a three way civil war. Its government and its Saudi allies stand accused of intentionally targeting cultural sites, including bombing the Dhamar Museum into dust. This raises questions whether the Yemeni government has "unclean hands" and whether artifacts should be repatriated to a war zone. There are also other moral issues related to whether the United States Government should recognize Yemeni government rights to artifacts of displaced Jewish and Christian populations. Under the circumstances, one has to wonder whether the short comment period is designed to keep potentially embarrassing comments about the merits of the Yemeni request to a minimum.
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