TEHRAN — Precious fossils, which belonged to various geologic eras, were retrieved from the U.S., Masoumeh Ebtekar, the head of Iran’s Department of Environment, said on Sunday.

The fossils, which had been found in the city of Maragheh, northwestern East Azarbaijan Province, had been sent to the U.S. before the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran. They were being kept at Harvard University, ISNA news agency reported.

Due to some reasons, Iran had difficulty retrieving these highly valuable fossils for a long time, Ebtekar said.

Iran has been pursuing a lawsuit against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice in The Hague for years. After undergoing a set of complicated procedures the Islamic Republic won the case fortunately, she explained.

There were about 3,000 fossils, half of which were being kept in Iran and the other half was in the U.S., she stated.

Numerous articles were published based on researches carried out on the Iranian fossils in the U.S., which also helped settle the lawsuit against the U.S. as well, she added.

“The fossils will soon be brought back to Iran and we have decided to showcase them at a ceremony attended by researchers from Iran and the U.S.,” she noted.

Ebtekar highlighted that some of the fossils will remain in Tehran Museum of Natural History and the rest will be sent to a fossil research center in Maragheh.

She also regretted the fact that Maragheh fossil research site has been neglected for a long time, but expressed hope to revive the site in the near future.


MQ