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Syria pledges commitment to disengagement agreement in Golan Heights

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Monday stressed his country's commitment to the 1974 Israel-Syria disengagement agreement, according to the state news agency SANA.

Mekdad made the remarks during his meeting with Major General Purna Chandra Thapa, the new force commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights.

Mekdad stressed that the Syrian government honors its commitments under the 1974 separation of forces agreement, vowing consistent facilitations for the UN mission to execute its duties in an optimal way.

Meanwhile, the deputy foreign minister accused Israel of cooperating with the terrorist groups in the southern province of Qunaitera, bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, noting that Israel is violating the 1974 agreement.

He demanded that the UN Security Council takes "deterrent measures" to rein in Israel's violations.

The development comes at times when battles have raged recently in Qunaitera near Golan Heights between the Syrian army backed by the Lebanese Hezbollah and an array of jihadist groups.

The battle was unleashed by the Syrian troops last week to thwart the rebels advancement in that area and to foil what the state media described as the Israeli plan to use the rebels in southern Syria to impose a buffer zone.

UNDOF was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 350 on May. 31, 1974.

Since then, UNDOF has remained in the area to supervise the implementation of the disengagement agreement, which stipulated the disengagement and separation of Israeli and Syrian military forces in Golan Heights, and the creation of disengagement zones between the two armies. Endit