ARTDAILY
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| A view of the destroyed leaning minaret (C), dubbed "the hunchback", or Al-Habda, at the al-Nuri mosque is seen in the old city of Mosul in northern Iraq. Zaid al-Obeidi / AFP. |
BAGHDAD (AFP).- The United Arab Emirates and Iraq on Monday launched a joint effort to reconstruct Mosul's Great Mosque of al-Nuri and its iconic leaning minaret, ravaged last year during battles to retake the city from jihadists. During the ceremony at Baghdad's National Museum, UAE Culture Minister Noura al-Kaabi said her country would put forward $50.4 million (41.2 million euros) for the task. "The five-year project is not just about rebuilding the mosque, the minaret and the infrastructure, but also about giving hope to young Iraqis," she said. "The millenia-old civilisation must be preserved." The deal was signed by Kaabi and her Iraqi counterpart, Faryad Rawanduzi, in the presence of UNESCO's Iraq representative Louise Haxthausen. [
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