Israel tells the UN that the reinforcement of troops in the occupied Golan Heights is “limited and temporary”

MADRID Dec. 10 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Israel’s representative to the UN, Danny Danon, stated this Monday before the United Nations Security Council that the “reinforcement” of its deployment in the Golan Heights derived from the “security threat” after the large-scale offensive launched last week by jihadists and rebels in Syria is “limited and temporary.”

“Israel has adopted limited and temporary measures to counter any additional threats to its citizens. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been temporarily deployed at several points and in a limited capacity east of Line A, focusing on specific locations where Defensive measures are necessary to maintain security, stability and prevent armed groups from threatening Israeli territory,” he explained.

Danon has assured that this decision takes place after on Saturday “armed groups entered” the “buffer zone” between Israel and Syria, attacking the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, also known as UNDOF, taking ” temporarily” controlling several mission outposts and looting their equipment. Furthermore, they “seriously endangered the safety of UN personnel.”

“The IDF assisted UN troops in repelling the attack. It is essential to highlight that any military presence in this area is prohibited under the 1974 Disengagement Agreement between Syria and Israel which, as expressly stipulated in Security Council resolutions of the United Nations, there should be no military forces, except those of UNDOF,” reads a letter addressed to the president of the Security Council, the American Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres.

The diplomat stressed that the IDF “will continue to act as necessary to protect the State of Israel and its citizens, in full compliance with International Law, and will continue to closely monitor the situation.” However, he took the opportunity to highlight that “Israel is not intervening in the ongoing conflict between Syrian armed groups.”

The Golan Heights are a territory that Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day War (1967) and the Yom Kippur War (1973) and effectively annexed in 1981, a movement not recognized by the community. international.

The offensive in Syria, launched on November 27 from the province of Idlib and led by the Syrian group Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), has allowed jihadists and rebels to take the capital, Damascus, and put an end to the Al family regime Assad, in power since 1971, faced with a constant withdrawal of government troops, backed by Russia and Iran.