TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: UNESCO should be releasing its report on the Mughrabi Gate excavation today. Here's a preview:

UNESCO to call for halt to Jerusalem dig-reports
14 Mar 2007 08:39:57 GMT
Source: Reuters

JERUSALEM, March 14 (Reuters) - United Nations experts will call on Israel to halt excavations near Jerusalem's most sacred Islamic site and proceed only under international supervision, people briefed on a UNESCO report said on Wednesday.

Israel's archaeological excavations 50 metres (165 feet) from a religious compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount sparked Muslim protests.

The Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which surveyed the site, is expected to issue its report on the dig later in the day.

The report will say the work being carried out at the site complies with international standards, according to officials briefed on the findings.

But the report will call on Israel to suspend the project and draw up a new work plan in consultation with Jordanian authorities and the Waqf, a body that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

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