Armed forces opposed to the Syrian regime seized at least twenty United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) peacekeepers on Wednesday, March 6th. “The U.N. observers were on a regular supply mission and were stopped near Observation Post 58, which had sustained damage and was evacuated this past weekend following heavy combat in close proximity,” the UN said in a statement.
A rebel claiming he was from the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" brigade, which may have a Palestinian refugee connection, said the convoy would not be released until forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad withdrew from a village a mile east of the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights vicinity.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council condemned the seizure of the peacekeepers and called for their immediate release. Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly I. Churkin, who is serving as the president of the Security Council this month and has blamed the United States for looking the other way as elements of the Syrian opposition launched a terrorist attack two weeks ago in Damascus that killed scores of civilians, said: “Some people are trying very hard to extend the Syrian conflict. Today there is this incident.
This is no-man’s land between Syria and Israel. Somebody is trying very hard to blow this crisis up.”
UNDOF, as its full name connotes, is an observer force mandated to monitor the Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria. Consisting of a little over 1000 troops from several countries, UNDOF is supposed to maintain calm in the demilitarized zone separating Syrian and Israeli forces in the Golan Heights area as best it can. They have been relatively successful since the ceasefire that ended the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, at least until the civil war gripping Syria began to spill over the region.
The detention of the UNDOF peacekeepers occurred just a day after Al Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria were reportedly scouting and filming Israeli Defense Force patrols along Israel’s border with Syria. The terrorists were seen carrying anti-tank rockets and heavy machine guns.
According to a report by the Times of Israel, "Members of the al-Furqan group — affiliated with the global al-Qaeda organization which has acted in Yemen and Iraq — were filmed close to Israel’s border, out in the open, in footage screened by Israel’s Channel 10 on Tuesday night."
While currently focused on toppling the Assad regime, the jihadists can be expected to pivot their attention to infiltrating and attacking Israel once they establish a secure power base in Syria. The Golan Heights will be their entry point.
Here are excerpts from postings on the Internet last October of a conversation between two Syrian mujahids, as published by the Middle East Media Research Institute:
Syrian mujahid: "We will move on. When, Allah willing, we cleanse Syria, we won’t stop there. We will continue to the Shebaa Farms and Kafr Shuba, and we will pass through the Golan Heights all the way to Jerusalem. And then…"
Other Syrian mujahid: "All the way to Persia."
Syrian mujahid: "Then we will make an about-turn, cleanse Iraq, where there is still some filth. After we are done with Iraq, we will move on to Constantinople, and then Cordoba and Andalusia. That’s it. Now that we have weapons, we don’t intend to ever lay them down."
Where does the Obama administration stand on arming the Syrian opposition? Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that the administration supported the Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar that are sending arms to the rebels, assuming naively that the arms will not end up in the hands of the extremists. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary and the tragic experience in Libya with the armed jihadists who killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans, the Obama administration is increasingly confident, according to Kerry, that weapons sent to the Syrian rebels would not fall into the wrong hands.
The Obama administration continues to play recklessly with fire in a region that is careening out of control.
