YEMEN TO REPORT ZABID NEW SITUATION TO UNESCO SOON

SANA'A, March 11 (Saba) - An official report on situation in historic city of Zabid has been finalized and would be submitted to the World Heritage Committee at UNESCO next week, the GPC-run almotamar.net has reported.

Head of the General Organization for the Preservation of the Historic Cities Abdullah Eissa said that the report, which is prepared according to the Committee's recommendations to the government late in 2009, contains the legal efforts and procedures the government has made to reduce the violations that inscribed the city in the List of World Heritage in danger.

Eissa hailed the government efforts in this regard, saying that the ministerial committee in cooperation with local and international organizations has managed to improve the situation of Zabid city.

The World Heritage Committee is to submit a report to a meeting of the UNESCO set to be held in the coming months.

Zabid has been declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. In 2000, Zabid was listed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Zabid is a town of 20,000 people on Yemen's western coastal plain. It lies approximately ten miles from the Red Sea. It belongs to Hodeidah governorate.

Zabid is one of the oldest cities in Yemen. It was the capital of Yemen from the 13th to the 15th century and a center of the Arab and Muslim world due in large part to its famed University of Zabid and being a center of Islamic education.

The city was established in 204 in hijri calendar when it was taken over by Mohammad bin Ziyad upon directives from the Caliph Haron Arrashid.

AF/AF