UNITED NATIONS: A spillover of violence from Syria’s civil war into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights is jeopardising a decades old ceasefire between Israel and Syria, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report to the UN Security Council yesterday.
Ban recommended to the 15-member council that self defense capabilities of a UN peacekeeping mission in the area, known as UNDOF, be enhanced, “including increasing the force strength to about 1,250 and improving its self defence equipment.”
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war, and the countries technically remain at war. Syrian troops are not allowed in an area of separation under a 1973 ceasefire formalised in 1974. UNDOF monitors the area of separation, a narrow strip of land running 45 miles (70km) from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan.
“The ongoing military activities in the area of separation continue to have the potential to escalate tensions between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic and to jeopardize the ceasefire between the two countries,” Ban said.
The 15-member Security Council is due later this month to renew the mandate of UNDOF for six months. Ban recommended that the force, which has been operating with about 900 troops, be boosted to its authorized strength of 1,250.
Reuters
