An Iraqi historian and archaeologist, as well as the director of Syria's Palmyra Museum, both claimed on Wednesday that an "international Jewish mafia" was conspiring to steal the Middle East's most precious antiquities in an effort to destroy the region's Arab heritage.

"The Jews are always looking for antiquities" historian and archaeologist Ali al-Nashmi said in an interview posted on Youtube and translated by MEMRI, adding that "they extort, steal and establish gangs," as a means to pilfer the area of its historic treasures. 

Al-Nasmi claimed that "this ancient theory from the days of the Babylonian captivity 2,500 years ago" could be traced all the way to the 19th century, where it "was reinforced following the 1897 Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland."