The UN is quietly pulling back from the parts of the peacekeeper-administered military disengagement zone separating the Israeli and Syrian-controlled sections of the Golan Heights.
Reuters quotes an anonymous UN staffer as saying that "Staff in U.N. positions 10, 16, 31 and 37, as well as Camp Faouar on the (Syrian) side are being relocated."
Twitter user and Israel-based blogger Judge Dan created a map of these positions based off of the UN's publically-available information on the location of the UN Disengagement Observer Force's various bases:
According to the deployment map on UNDOF's website, these positions are near a base for Fijian peacekeepers — dozens of whom were kidnapped by the Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusral in late August.
It's likely that the UN is just temporarily reducing its presence in these areas until the security situation calms down. But the northern area of the usually-quiet disengagement zone — which was established after Israel beat back a Syrian surprise attack on October 6th, 1973, and agreed to withdraw to the pre-conflict front line after advancing to within 25 miles of Damascus— has turned into a trouble spot for the UN recently.
On August 30th, while the Fijian peacekeepers were still in jihadist captivity, militants surrounded peacekeepers from the Philippines inside the disengagement area; they were rescued by Irish peacekeepers after a reported firefight.
The Fijians were eventually released, and earlier today, the Israeli newspaper Ydiot Achronot published video of jubilant peacekeepers arriving in Israeli-controlled territory.
UNDOF position 16 is located near the "Shouting Hill," a spot where Druze in the Israeli-controlled town of Majdal Shams attempt to communicate with friends and family on the Syrian side of the disengagement zone. In reducing its presence near one of the more populated sections along the disengagement area, UNDOF is expressing confidence that the over 40-year-old state of ceasefire between the Israeli and Syrian governments can endure even during a major interruption in the mission's implementation.
But even if the withdrawal does turn out to be temporary, an Al Qaeda affiliate has still destabilized a peacekeeper-enforced area to the point where the UN has actually had to remove its personnel. UNDOF is proving less and less capable of keeping itself together. The one, fairly peripheral portion of Syria that's directly administered by the international community is too dangerous for a UN peacekeeping force — a disheartening sign of just how far the country's civil war is from any kind of resolution.
UPDATE: A spokesperson from the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations sent the following statement to Business Insider on UNDOF's re-deployment of some of its forces:
The situation in UN Disengagement Force on the Syrian side and the area of separation, has deteriorated severely over the last several days. Armed groups have made advances in the area of UNDOF positions, posing a direct threat to the safety and security of the UN Peacekeepers along the “Bravo” line and in Camp Faouar. All of UN personnel in these positions have thus been relocated to the Alpha side. UNDOF continues to use all available assets to carry out its mandated tasks in this exceptionally challenging period and environment.
The "Alpha side" is mission terminology for the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights; the "Bravo" side lies inside of Syria.
The UN has effectively retreated into Israeli-administered territory, ceding the only place in Syria with an internationally-mandated peacekeeping mission to the armed groups operating in the area — which include the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.
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