President Barack Obama Monday signed into law a bill sponsored by a New York congressman that aims to protect Syria’s cultural heritage.
President Obama signed the “Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act,” legislation intended to stop ISIS from looting antiquities. Democrat Eliot Engel, ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, sponsored the bill in his chamber. He says the Act imposes new import restrictions on antiquities that are trafficked out of Syria, bringing U.S. policy in line with a United Nations Security Council resolution that called on governments to deny funding to ISIS by preventing trade in Iraqi and Syrian cultural property. Similar restrictions were enacted in 2004 with respect to Iraqi antiquities.