.
9/17/14, "U.S. House votes to arm Syrian rebels, but questions remain," Reuters, by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan
----------------------------------------
9/16/14, "Syrian rebels seize UN weapons in the Golan: ambassador," AFP
"Syrian rebels linked to
Al-Qaeda have seized UN weapons, uniforms and vehicles from peacekeepers
in the Golan and set up a "safe zone" to wage attacks, the Syrian
ambassador said Tuesday.
The United Nations on Monday was forced to pull
back hundreds of peacekeepers to the Israeli-occupied sector of the
Golan after Syrian rebels advanced on their positions.
Syrian
Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said fighters from Al-Nusra "had succeeded in
occupying all of the Syrian side" of the Golan, driving out the troops
from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
"The terrorists
are now using United Nations cars, which hold the emblem of the United
Nations forces in the Golan. They are using the uniform of the UNDOF,
the weapons of UNDOF, the positions of UNDOR to shell on the Syrian army
as well as on the civilians in villages," Jaafari told reporters.
The
UN Security Council is due to discuss the crisis on the Golan during a
session on Wednesday after more than 40 Fijian UNDOF troops were held
hostage for two weeks by Al-Nusra.
Jaafari accused Israel, Qatar
and Jordan of being behind a "very big plot" to destabilize Syria by
letting the Syrian rebels take control of part of the buffer to set up a
"safe zone" from where it can wage attacks.
A new report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon listed several
clashes on the Golan since May, but said UNDOF must stay the course and
continue to fulfill its mandate.
UNDOF monitors a 1974 ceasefire between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights.
Israel
seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan during
the Six-Day War of 1967, then annexed it in 1981 in a move never
recognized by the international community.
Some 510 square
kilometers of the Golan remain on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line,
with UNDOF overseeing a buffer zone stretching some 70 kilometers from
Lebanon in the north to Jordan in the south.
Six countries
contribute troops to the 1,200-strong UN force on the Golan: Fiji,
India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines."
"Congressional leaders gathered at the White House for talks on IS," EPA photo via BBC. via Pamela Geller
.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment