NEW YORK/MOSCOW: The UN said yesterday it could not accept Russia’s offer to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights because an agreement between Israel and Syria bars permanent members of the Security Council from the UN observer mission.
The UN expressed appreciation for the Russian offer, made on Friday by President Vladimir Putin after Austria said it would recall its troops from a UN monitoring force due to worsening fighting in Syria.
Austria, whose peacekeepers account for about 380 of the 1,000-member UN force monitoring a four-decade-old cease-fire between Syria and Israel, said it would pull out after intense clashes between Syrian government forces and rebels on the border.
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said it was impossible at the moment for the UN to accept the offer from Russia, which along with the US, Britain, France and China is a permanent, member of the 15-nation Security Council.
UN ‘can’t accept’ Russia’s offer of Golan troops
UN ‘can’t accept’ Russia’s offer of Golan troops
