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 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. 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. "When frontlines shift and zones become militarized, boots-on-the-ground access drops to zero," Bassir told Xinhua.