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

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

The day before the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s government last December 8, the Syrian army had withdrawn in a disorganized manner from its positions in the south of the country, and then Israeli forces advanced into the buffer zone where UN forces were deployed.

The demilitarized zone is located on the edge of the Syrian Golan plateau which 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.

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

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