Israel, Syria may lift ban on involvement of peacekeepers from countries that are permanent UN Security Council members in operation on Golan Heights - Lavrov
RIO DE JANEIRO. June 12 (Interfax) - The protocol signed by Israel and Syria in 1974, according to which servicemen from the countries that are permanent members of the Un Security Council cannot participate in the peacekeeping operation on the Golan Heights, may be replaced with a new document, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Doubts are being voiced in the sense that there is a protocol signed in 1974, but this protocol can absolutely be replaced with a new protocol between Israel and Syria," Lavrov told a press conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Lavrov also said the situation in the world has changed greatly since the signing of the protocol in 1974.
"When the current operation to deploy the UN division forces on the Golan Heights was approved in 1974, Israel and Syria signed a protocol - and it was not a UN Security Council resolution - in which they agreed that the contingents of the permanent members of the Security Council would not be used in the operation. You understand very well that it happened during the Cold War. A year has passed since the next 'hot war' in the Middle East, and no one wanted to create a situation when permanent members of the Security Council were involved in the settlement process because there was mutual suspicion, mutual mistrust," Lavrov said.
"The situation is different now," he said.
