U.S. hands over artefacts to Maliki’s office

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Administration handed over a large amount of antiquities to the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki in 2008 to place at the National Museum in Baghdad, according to a statement by the Iraqi embassy in Washington on Saturday. “The Iraqi embassy in Washington has received 633 archeological pieces from the U.S. side under the auspices of the former U.S. Army Commander in Iraq General David Petraeus, on Dec. 22, 2008. General Petraeus flew the antiquities via his special aircraft to Iraq,” the read the statement as received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The statement added that the reason for the delay in handing over the antiquities was due to “the deteriorated security conditions in Iraq those days.” The Iraqi prime minister‘s media adviser, Ali al-Moussawi, had announced last month that the prime minister‘s office “did not receive any antiquities to that date,” adding that the Council of Ministers had “ordered a probe to uncover the fate of those antiquities.” Moussawi demanded the parties which he said “had alleged to have handed over the antiquities” to show the documents and the evidence that prove their handover to the Iraqi side.” SKH (S)/SR/AmR 2