SecCo extends UNDOF mandate – UN news item

Security Council extends UN's Israel-Syria disengagement force by six months 

26 June – The United Nations Security Council today extended through December the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF, which was established in 1974 to monitor the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.

By a unanimously adopted resolution, which prolonged the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force until 31 December, the Council also called on the parties concerned to implement immediately the Council's milestone resolution 338 of October 1973.

The Council also requested Secretary-General Kofi Annan to submit, by the end of the renewal period, a report "on the developments in the situation and the measures taken to implement" the 338 resolution, which, in part, called upon the parties to start immediately implementing another landmark Council decision – resolution 242 of 1967 – and resolved that "negotiations shall start between the parties concerned under appropriate auspices aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East."

The Council took its action after considering a recent report by the Secretary-General, which notes that "the situation in the Middle East is very tense and is likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached."