UN Demands Syrians to Stop Fighting in Golan

Extends Mandate of UN Force in Heights, But Few Nations Willing to Deploy

The United Nations Security Council has issued a statement today calling on both Syria’s government and rebels to “halt all military activity” in the Golan Heights in an effort to protect the UN observer forced deployed in that area.

The Security Council also extended the mandate of the Golan force through the end of the year, and aims to increase the size of the force from its current 911 troops to 1,250.

That’s going to be a tall order, as nations are desperately withdrawing from the Golan Disengagement Observer Force (DOF), which has been repeatedly the victim of high profile kidnappings by rebels.

Rebels moved against several villages along the Israeli frontier earlier this year, apparently trying to create a front from which to attack Damascus’ southern metro area. There is no reason to expect either side will abandon the fight for those villages now, however, as a result of this resolution.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.