U.N. Warns over Impact of Syria Conflict on Golan Force
The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday expressed concern that the Syria conflict could jeopardize the safety of U.N. monitors in the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria.
A 1,200 strong unarmed force, which has been in the heights since 1974, has come under fire this year from the Syrian side of the border.
In March about 230 Syrian police entered the buffer zone patrolled by the U.N. force to chase government opponents, a U.N. report said.
The 15-member Security Council passed a resolution in which it backed comments by U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon that "events elsewhere in Syria have started to manifest themselves in the area of responsibilities" of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The resolution, which renewed the mission's mandate for six months until the end of the year, expressed "grave concern" at the security incidents this year.
It called on "all parties to exercise maximum restraint and prevent any breaches of the ceasefire and the area of separation."
The "area of separation" is the U.N. term for the buffer zone between Syria and Israel.
Israel took the Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab war and annexed it in 1981 in a move which the international community does not recognize.
Source: Agence France Presse
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