The United Nations Security Council decided to keep peacekeepers in the Golan Heights despite the mission's temporary inability to fulfill its mandate, the president of the council said Friday, dpa reported.
Mark Lyall Grant, British ambassador and current president of the Security Council, said the council will review and potentially amend the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the coming weeks, while also asking member states to send additional troops.
"Of course it is dangerous and it is much less than ideal, but I think it would be more dangerous to withdraw the force entirely," Grant said.
While the council welcomed Russia's offer to send troops, Grant said, the 1974 ceasefire agreement, under which UNDOF operates, forbids permanent member states of the Security Council from sending peacekeepers to the mission.