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PALERMO - While the war continues in Syria, with regime bombing on besieged Eastern Ghouta and clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdish YPG in the north, reconstruction has begun in Aleppo. A group of Italian engineers and experts have been transferred to the Syrian city to work with locals and teach them the necessary skills to restore the UNESCO World Heritage sites of the souq, minaret and Umayyad mosque.

Superflex’s Conceptual Hospital Exhibition Gets Put to Life-Saving Use—in a Syrian Operating Room
Victims of the raging civil war in Syria are undergoing surgery assisted by a work of conceptual art.

People walk inside the Citadel of Salah ad-Din near Latakia, in northern Syria, where much of the conservation work was funded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture . The Aga Khan, a high-ranking Imam of the Nizr Muslims, who has been head of his community for 50 years, has said that the goals of the wealthy philanthropic organisation he runs is to educate the world on the wealth of Muslim culture.

Speech by Hazar Imam at Banquet in Damascus during the Golden Jubilee visit to Syria
August 23-30 2008

Dear President and Leaders of the Jamat

I would like to begin these short comments by sharing with you My sense of immense happiness on this Golden Jubilee visit to Syria.
It has brought to Me very, very great happiness because I can remember 1957 very well. I can remember 1958, 1959, 1960.- years in which Syria and the Jamat in Syria had very great problems ahead of them. And I compare where we are today and I say to myself “Alhamdullilah” we have made real progress.

Comments by His Highness The Aga Khan at the Press Conference held at the Office of the Prime Minister of Syria, His Excellency Mr.Mohammed Naji Otri after the signing of various Agreements and Memorandums of Understanding between the Institutions of the Imamat and Agencies of Syria

Damascus, Syria

August 25th, 2008

Mr. Prime Minister,

I would like to begin these comments this morning by thanking you and your Government for the very warm welcome that you have accorded to me on this Golden Jubilee visit to Syria.