Egypt Daily News – A United Nations spokesman announced on Monday that the advance of Israeli forces into the buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan constitutes a “violation” of the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, which was signed in 1974.
Stephane Dujarric said that the United Nations force in charge of monitoring the disengagement (UNDOF) “informed its Israeli counterparts that these actions constitute a violation of the 1974 agreement on disengagement,” explaining that the Israeli forces that entered the buffer zone are still deployed in three places.
He stressed that “there should be no forces or military activities in the separation zone. Israel and Syria must continue to implement the provisions of the 1974 agreement and maintain the stability of the Golan,” quoted by “Agence France-Presse.”
Israel occupied part of the Syrian Golan Heights during the Six-Day War in 1967. A demilitarized buffer zone was established under United Nations control, following a disengagement agreement between Israeli and Syrian forces in 1974 after the October War of 1973. Israel annexed the occupied part of the Golan in 1981. In a move that was not recognized by the international community except the United States.
Israel informed the UN Security Council on Monday that it had taken “limited and temporary measures” in the demilitarized sector on the border with Syria to confront any threat, especially to the residents of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, said in a letter to the UN Security Council: “However, it is important to stress that Israel does not interfere in the ongoing conflict between Syrian armed groups. Our operations focus only on protecting our security.”
He added that Israel remains committed to the framework of the Disengagement Agreement concluded in 1974.
For its part, the United States announced, on Monday, that Israel’s incursion into the buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan, following the overthrow of the Assad regime, should only be “temporary.”
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “It is a temporary step they took in response to the Syrian army’s withdrawal from this region. Now, what we want to see in the end is this agreement to be fully adhered to, and we will be watching to see Israel do that.”
Miller was asked whether Washington was explicitly calling on its ally, Israel, to withdraw, and he responded that the agreement signed after the Yom Kippur War in 1973 “includes Israel’s withdrawal to its previous positions.”
But he did not want to specify a timetable, given the rapid developments on the ground in Syria.
Miller commented: “Israel said that what it is doing is temporary to defend its borders. These are not permanent steps, and in the end we want to see permanent stability between Israel and Syria. This means that we support all parties’ respect for the 1974 disengagement agreement.”
