UNITED NATIONS, June 27 (RIA Novosti) – The United Nations Security Council on Thursday prolonged the presence of a UN peacekeeping force in the disputed Golan Heights region between Syria and Israel for another six months, the UN reported on its website.
The Security Council also requested Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ensure that the force, which has recently faced numerous threats, has the required capacity and resources to implement its mandate.
The UN body unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) until December 31, 2013. UNDOF monitors the 1974 Syria-Israel disengagement accord after the two countries’ war the previous year.
The UN-monitored buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was set up to separate Israeli and Syrian forces after the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. Although it is de-jure on Syrian territory, it has been occupied and annexed by Israel since the war. Ownership of the strategically important Golan Heights remains one of the main points of contention between the two nations.
The resolution “underscores” that there should be no military activity of any kind in the area of separation, including both military operations by the Syrian armed forces and military activity of the armed opposition groups.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told journalists that it was particularly important that the clause on the armed opposition’s activity had been included in the text.
UNDOF’s force strength will be boosted to some 1,250 troops, an increase of about 300.
More than 90,000 people have died since fighting broke out between Syrian government forces and rebel groups in March 2011, according to the latest UN figures.
Russia, along with China, has faced widespread condemnation over its refusal to approve UN sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it has no interest in seeing Assad remain at the helm, but is concerned that a power vacuum would lead to more violence.
