Peacekeepers back on Golan Heights Syria frontier

UN peacekeepers returned Thursday for the first time in years to the frontier between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, conducting joint patrols with Russian military police in a reflection of Moscow’s deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes in the volatile region.

Israel has increasingly sought Russia’s involvement in securing its frontier with Syria and in scaling back Iran’s influence in the area. Moscow, Damascus’s weightiest ally, has in turn sought co-ordination with Israel as a bridge with Washington in dealing with Syria’s complex war.

Israel considers Iran’s growing influence in Syria — it has advisers and allied militias fighting alongside Syrian troops— as an existential threat and had looked for guarantees from Moscow to push pro-Iran fighters away from its frontiers.

Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoy of the Russian General Staff said conditions have been created for the resumption of UN peacekeeping patrols along the area separating Syria and Israel. The UN peacekeeping forces first deployed along the frontier in 1974 following an agreement to separate Syrian and Israeli forces after Israel occupied the Golan Heights in the 1967 war.

Rudskoy said Russian military police have accompanied the peacekeepers on patrols, adding that eight Russian-manned observation points opposite the UN points will be set up “to rule out possible provocations.’’

When the situation stabilizes, Rudskoy said, the Russianmanned posts would be handed over to Syrian government forces.

Israel acknowledged a return to normalcy along the frontier.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the situation on the Syrian side of the boundary had returned to its pre-2011 state after Syrian government forces, supported by Russia’s military, regained control of the region from armed opposition that controlled since 2014.

Lieberman said Israel will have “no cause to intervene or operate in Syrian territory’’ if Damascus respects the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two sides — and as long as Syria doesn’t become a staging ground for Iranian forces to attack Israel or transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The area, peaceful for decades since the agreement, became a fighting ground at the height of the Syrian civil war, finally pushing the UN peacekeeping force out in 2014 after al-Qaida militants kidnapped 45 UN peacekeepers. They were released two weeks later.

The area had become particularly volatile in recent weeks amid a Syrian government offensive to retake territories controlled by the opposition adjacent to the frontier. Israel has also upped its strikes against suspected Iranian targets inside Syria.

A day before the joint RussiaUN patrols, Russia announced it reached an agreement with Israel to keep pro-Iranian fighters 85 kilometres (53 miles) from the volatile frontier.

It was the first publicized results of Russian mediation. Russian officials announced that Moscow gave Israel guarantees that that zone would be clear of pro-Iranian fighters. Russia had warned it would be unrealistic to expect Iran to fully withdraw from Syria.

During their summit in Helsinki, Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump said they were exploring ways to protect Israel from the war in Syria. They didn’t elaborate but later Putin said he agreed with Trump on securing Israel’s border with Syria in line with the 1974 deal.