Russia Offers to Send Peacekeepers to Golan

President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia was ready to deploy its troops to the Golan Heights, in eastern” Israel”, to replace Austrian peacekeepers as part of a UN monitoring mission on the border between Israeli troops and the Syrian army, according to RIA Novosti.

Austria had announced on Thursday morning that it was withdrawing its 377 troops from the United Nations’ 1,100-strong force following battles at Quneitra in Syria.

“In view of the complex situation that is emerging in the Golan Heights, we could replace the Austrian contingent that is leaving the area,” Putin said. “Needless to say, [we would do so] only if regional powers are interested in that and if the UN secretary general asks us to do that.”

A UN spokesman on Friday told RIA Novosti that the United Nations would welcome Russian peacekeepers in the Golan.

 “The UN welcomes any contribution by the world community to peacemaking efforts in the Golan , and the UNDOF [UN Disengagement Observer Force] is very important for the maintenance of peace in the region,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Russian parliament members on Friday supported Putin’s move

Russian peacekeepers in the area would enhance the country’s international standing and the authority of its armed forces, and have a positive impact on the situation in the region as a whole, said Valery Shnyankin, deputy head of the international relations committee at the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament.

Frants Klintsevich, deputy head of the State Duma Defense Committee, said Russian peacekeepers in the Golan would be the best possible deal for both Syria and “Israel”, since “there is a significant level of trust [in Russia] on both sides there,” compared with peacekeepers from any other country, including the United States.

In any event, this is a “big politics” issue and it is up to the president to make the final decision, Klintsevich said.

M.D