UN Security Council extends Golan Heights troop presence by six months

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously Friday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission along the Israeli-Syrian border and reiterated its call for peace negotiations between the two countries. A resolution adopted unanimously by the council extends the mandate of the 1,000-strong peacekeeping force in the Golan Heights until June 30, 2008.The UN Disengagement Observer Force was established in 1974, following the 1973 Yom Kippur war, to monitor the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, and Syria has demanded that Israel withdraw from the strategic plateau in the context of any future peace deal. Syria's U.S. Ambassador Imad Moustapha said Wednesday in Montana that a recent U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, has created this new momentum for peace. Syria wants a promise from Israel to restart stalled talks and improve diplomatic relationships with the United States, he said. The resolution calls on Israel and Syria to immediately implement a 1973 resolution calling for negotiations to establish a just and durable Middle East
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/934701.html

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