Israel took over the Golan Heights on its northern border with Syria, following the 1967 war, and annexed them in 1981, which the Security Council declared an illegal act. The French deputy ambassador, Anne Guegen, advised the meeting on Wednesday evening in New York that the European Union had affirmed earlier in the day that its Member States did now not understand Israel’s sovereignty and that any efforts to override Council resolutions over the land, were “doomed to failure.”
However, the representative for the USA, Rodney Hunter, assured the Council that the USA decision at the Golan Heights could no longer impact the protection or deployment of the UN peacekeeping force deployed to the Golan, referred to as UNDOF, which monitors the ceasefire between Israel and Syria.
He stated UNDOF “keeps an important function to play in maintaining balance…most significantly by ensuring that the Area of Separation is a buffer quarter loose from any navy presence or activities”. The diplomat noted that the Council ought to receive no longer any Syrian efforts to enter the separation quarter.
UN Peacekeeping Operations chief, Jean Pierre Lacroix, advised the assembly that the ceasefire monitored through UNDOF had held, regardless of numerous violations: “It is important that the events at all times admire the Disengagement of Forces Agreement to preserve stability at the Golan,” he stated.
“The importance of the parties retaining their liaison with UNDOF inside the first example can’t be over-emphasized,” he persisted. “We expect members of the Security Council to help efforts to sensitize each event and local stakeholders to the dangers of escalation, and they want to preserve the long-standing ceasefire between Israel and Syria.”
The UN’s head of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, reiterated the view of the Secretary-General António Guterres, expressed in advance this week, that “the fame of the Golan has not changed” inside the mild of the USA choice. “We hope that the latest developments will now not be used as an excuse by way of everybody to pursue actions that might undermine the relative stability of the state of affairs on Golan and beyond,” stated Ms. DiCarlo. “We will continue to carefully screen traits on the floor and will keep the Council knowledgeable, as suitable.”
