Iran has warned to cease scientific and cultural cooperation with Britain if the UK fails to loan the Achaemenid Cyrus cylinder to Iran in two months' time. The remark was made by the Deputy Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO), Hamid Baqaie, in an interview with the Fars news agency on Sunday.
"According to a deal between Iran's National Museum and the British Museum, the ancient clay cylinder was scheduled to be lent to Iran in September but the director of the British Museum [Neil MacGregor] refused to do so, citing Iran's post-election political state," Baqaie said.
"This is just an excuse and they want to postpone meeting their commitment," he went on to say.
"If they fail to loan the Cyrus cylinder to Iran in two months, we will cease all our joint archeological cooperation and cultural heritage exhibitions ... in Britain," he further explained.
Described as the world's first charter of human rights, Cyrus the Great's cylinder bears a declaration issued by the Persian King Cyrus II in Babylonian cuneiform.
The cylinder was discovered in 1879 by the Assyro-British archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam in Esagila (the Murdak temple of Babylon).
