Who will save the UN peacekeeping mission in Syria?

After more than forty years keeping the peace on the Golan Heights, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in Syria is close to collapse. UNDOF’s task – the maintenance of a ‘disengagement zone’ (a de-militarised area) agreed by Syria and Israel as part of the ceasefire ending the 1973 Yom Kippur war – has been severely complicated by the civil war that has gripped Syria for more than three years. Now, following a series of attacks at the end of August by the al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra Front, UNDOF has been forced to give up control of large parts of the disengagement zone and 45 Fijian UNDOF peacekeepers are being held hostage by the jihadi group. And further attacks on the UN force are likely.

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