Syria buffer zone

UN peacekeepers remain in Syria buffer zone, spokesperson tells CNN

From CNN’s Mick Krever

Despite the Israeli military seizing a buffer zone between Israel and Syrian-controlled territory, United Nations peacekeepers remain at their posts, a spokesperson told CNN on Monday.

“They are there, in place, doing their jobs, just like they were yesterday and the day before,” Nick Birnback said in a statement.

The UN Security Council created the Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in 1974, after Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 and Syria failed to retake the territory in 1973.

Birnback said that without a change in UNDOF’s Security Council mandate, peacekeepers would remain at their stations. The Security Council last renewed UNDOF’s mission in June, until the end of the year.

The “area of separation” was established as a demilitarized zone within Syria, to be patrolled by the UN.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said that he had ordered the military to “take control” of the buffer zone. It marked the first time Israeli troops were stationed there since the agreement establishing the line of control between Israel and Syria, though they have in the past entered the no-man’s land for brief periods.