Foreign Ministry: UN has to condemn the attacks of the armed terrorist groups on civilians in the forces’ disengagement area

The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry has addressed two identical letters to head  of the UN Security Council and the UN Secretary-General on the detention of 21 UNDOF observers by an armed terrorist group from Jamleh village near the forces’ disengagement area in the occupied Syrian Golan on March 6, 2013.

“The Syrian government has fully cooperated with the UNDOF command through a one-sided ceasefire as a step to ensure security and safety of the UN forces” the Ministry said, expressing its surprise when informed that the armed men moved the detained observers to Jordan instead of releasing them unconditionally and handing them over to the force command, which in turn will encourage the armed groups to repeat such an incident.

“As the Syrian government renews commitment to its obligations based on the Disengagement of Forces Agreement and to enabling the UN forces to implement their mandate in the occupied  Syrian Golan, it would remind of the repeated attacks recently against the UN forces by the armed terrorist  groups that will in turn benefit from  the UN disregard of their dangerous activities and become active in the action area of the UN forces due to the  logistic support they receive from the Israeli occupation forces which constitute a clear violation of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces  Agreement”, the Ministry added.

“The Syrian government also holds “Israel” responsible for the threat imposed by the armed groups to the safety of UNDOF forces and staff,” the ministry reiterated.

The Ministry underscored that the Syrian government has repeatedly warned against repercussions of these terrorists’ presence in the disengagement area, underlining the urgency of the UN clear condemnation of these terrorist and armed attacks on the civilians, getting the terrorist groups immediately out of the area and prevent their infiltration into it.

The Ministry also highlighted the necessity of holding the countries backing the armed groups responsible for their activities, adding that the disregard of their presence in the forces’ disengagement area will threaten security of the region in general and the UN forces in particular.

Inas Abdulkareem