This demand was expressed during a meeting held in this capital by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, Asaad Hassan Al-Shibani and Marhaf Abu Qasra, respectively, and a delegation from the United Nations made up of the Undersecretary General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, and the commander of the Disengagement Observer Force, Patrick Gauchat.

According to what was disclosed by the official agency SANA, the Syrian side expressed its willingness to fully cooperate with the United Nations and cover its positions on the border with the Syrian Golan occupied in accordance with the 1974 mandate and on the condition that Israeli forces withdraw immediately.

The day before the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government on December 8, the Syrian army had withdrawn in a disorganized manner from its positions in the south of the country, and then Israeli forces advanced towards the buffer zone where UN forces were deployed.

The demilitarized zone is located on the edge of the Syrian Golan Heights that Israel occupied in 1967 and declared its annexation in 1981, in a move that was not recognized by the international community, except for the United States.

Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said the day before that his country’s army would remain positioned on top of Mount Hermon and in the buffer zone for an indefinite period.

Syrian delegate to the United Nations Qusay Al-Dahhak recently called on the United Nations Security Council to take urgent measures to force Israel to immediately withdraw from the occupied territories.

Al-Dahhak considered the Israeli military incursions to be a violation of Syria’s sovereignty and a breach of relevant international resolutions, adding that this is unacceptable and unjustifiable.

The UN had deemed the presence of Israeli forces and their activities of building military sites and fortifications inside the buffer zone in the occupied Syrian Golan to be a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

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