‘Timeline in place’ for Golan restructuring

Defence Minister Simon Coveney does not believe US president Barack Obama’s pronouncements on the Middle East should be a concern for Irish peacekeepers in the region.

Mr Coveney was responding to an address in which Mr Obama said the US would “degrade, and ultimately destroy”, the Islamic State network through increased military operation in Syria and Iraq.

Mr Coveney also confirmed that a timeline is in place for the restructuring of the UN Disengagement Observer Force operations in the Golan Heights buffer zone, and that he will decide on whether more Irish troops will be sent to the region by the end of the month.

“I don’t think that the US will do anything to endanger or undermine peacekeeping mission like UNDOF,” said Mr Coveney.

“The US are hugely supportive of that mission staying intact and Ireland staying there. I have been in contact with the US embassy on that because they are anxious to be as helpful as possible, as are the British Embassy and our counterparts there.”

With a UN Security Council meeting due to be held next week and a peacekeeping summit in New York the week after that, Mr Coveney said a clear timeline is in place for a decision on restructuring the mission in such a way that will ensure that the risks to which Irish peacekeepers will be exposed is being managed responsibly.

“I think there is an obvious sequence of events that will hopefully allow us to make sensible recommendations that can allow me to reassure people and reassure the Government that we can commit to UNDOF but that we can commit to UNDOF in a way that manages risk in an acceptable manner,” Mr Coveney said yesterday.

“The concern is that this is an 80km strip in length from north to south, it’s very narrow in places, it’s just a kilometre wide in some places, it’s much wider in other places. There is a whole series of UN posts that were manned. Some of those posts have had to be abandoned because they are now in areas where there is an active civil war going on. So clearly by restructuring where the UN has its posts, we can de-risk the situation significantly.”

“We’re not giving ultimatums here but we are certainly insisting on working together with the UN to get the changes that we need and to get those changes quickly so that we can make a decision on the rotation by the end of this month.”