UN peacekeepers back on Golan Heights

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Accompanied by the Russian military police, UN peacekeeping forces patrolled Thursday the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the first time since 2014, Russian General Staff spokesman Sergey Rudskoy announced.

"Control at the Syrian-Jordan border is totally restored. The conditions for the reestablishing the activities of the UN peacekeeping forces, deployed in the disengagement zone between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 350, are in place," Rudskoy said.

He also added that Russian military had set up eight surveillance posts along the UN patrolling route "to avoid any provocations".

He said Syrian regime forces will resume control of those posts in the future.

Al-Qaeda terrorists kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers in the area to release them after two weeks. The incident prompted UN to withdraw from the zone shortly after.

Israel has occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East War.