CAIRO, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s latest World Heritage listings have highlighted an urgent need to protect the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)'s shared heritage, experts have said.
During its recently concluded 48th session in South Korea's Busan, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed six new sites from MENA, underscoring their outstanding universal values.
The six sites are the United Arab Emirates' first natural World Heritage site Wadi Wurayah, Jordan's biodiverse Aqaba Marine Reserve, Tunisia's charming town Sidi Bou Said, Lebanon's historic Mount Amel Castles, Palestine's ancient village Sebastia, and Iran's medieval architectural legacy Alamut Castle and Related Fortifications.
The inscriptions came as regional heritage faces growing threats from conflict, climate pressures, urban sprawl, and looting, prompting renewed calls for stronger conservation.
Maha Salah, a writer and journalist with Egypt's Al-Dostour newspaper specializing in archaeology, said this year's World Heritage inscriptions reflect two parallel realities across MENA.
"On one side of the coin, you have stable, forward-looking states curating their long-term environmental and cultural capital," Salah told Xinhua, citing Wadi Wurayah, Aqaba Marine Reserve and Sidi Bou Said as models of strengthening environmental protection and sustainable tourism through heritage preservation.
At the same time, Salah said, Lebanon's, Palestine's, and Iran's new listings show how crucial heritage recognition has become for protecting sites amid regional unrest.
"By placing these landmarks under immediate international scrutiny and enhanced protection frameworks, global institutions are drawing a red line in the sand," she said. "It shows that even as borders fracture and physical security degrades, the collective will to safeguard shared human heritage remains a fiercely defended frontline."
Hussein Bassir, director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and a cultural heritage expert, said preserving heritage in conflict-affected areas has become increasingly difficult.
"When frontlines shift and zones become militarized, boots-on-the-ground access drops to zero," Bassir told Xinhua. "Local heritage guardians are left stranded, and historical layers spanning millennia become vulnerable to direct shelling, neglect, and collateral damage."
He said UNESCO's recognition can help mobilize international support for conservation, but cautioned that long-term protection depends on sustained regional cooperation.
"Protecting our shared heritage requires a unified regional defense mechanism, because once a monument of the ancient world is lost, history loses a chapter that can never be rewritten," he said. ■