ISLAMABAD: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Friday extended a long-running peacekeeping mission between Syria and the newly Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for six months and expressed deep concern that military activities in the region could escalate tensions.
Since a rebel offensive ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, Israeli forces have moved into the demilitarised zone – created following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war – that is patrolled by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
UNDOF
In the resolution adopted on Friday, the UNSC stressed “that both parties must abide by the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Israel and the Syria and scrupulously observe the truce.”
Reuters news agency reported that it expressed concern that “the current military activities carried out by any actor in the area of separation continue to have the potential to escalate tensions between Israel and Syria, jeopardize the ceasefire between the two sides, and pose a risk to the local civilian population and UN personnel on the ground.”
UN secretary-general on Syrian situation
Armed forces from Syria and Israel are not allowed in the demilitarized zone – a 400-square-km (155-square-mile) “Area of Separation” – under the truce arrangement.
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday: “Let me be clear: There should be no military forces in the area of separation other than U.N. peacekeepers – period.”
He said Israeli airstrikes on Syria were violations of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and “must stop.”
Israel strikes Syria
The development comes as earlier a Syria war monitor had said Israel launched strikes targeting military sites in Damascus and its countryside, in the latest such raids since rebels brought down Bashar al-Assad almost a week ago.
“Israeli strikes destroyed a scientific institute” and other related military facilities in Barzeh, in northern Damascus, and targeted a “military airport” in the capital’s countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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Strikes also targeted “Scud ballistic missile warehouses” and launchers in the Qalamun area, as well as “rockets, depots and tunnels under the mountain”, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
AFP cited the Observatory as saying that several rounds of bombardment targeted “military sites of the former regime forces, as part of destroying what is left of the future Syrian army’s capabilities”.
