H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, received members of the Joint Committee for Reconstruction and Restoration of Al-Nuri Mosque and the Al-Hadba’ Minaret in Mosul, in the presence of Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Knowledge Development.

The committee is holding its first meeting in Abu Dhabi.

In April 2018, the UAE and Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, for cultural cooperation, with a landmark project in Mosul and Al Kaabi announced the launch of a project for the restoration and reconstruction project of one of Iraq’s most famous cultural sites, Al-Nuri Mosque and the Al-Hadba’ Minaret in Mosul, destroyed by Daesh in June 2017. The project includes the construction of a new memorial site with community and educational spaces to be made open to the public.

The UAE also signed an agreement with UNESCO to fund and support the reconstruction of the two cultural sites and to build the necessary infrastructure for the project, rebuild the historical gardens, a memorial site with the community and educational spaces.

The five-year cultural project is being supervised by a joint committee that includes representatives from the UAE, Iraq, UNESCO, the Iraqi Sunni Endowment, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) Regional Office in Sharjah.