Israel can't entrust int'l forces for its security after Austrian peacekeepers withdraw: PM

Source : Xinhua

JERUSALEM, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The disintegration of UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights underscores the fact that Israel cannot rely on international forces for its security, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Netanyahu was referring to Austria's decision, announced last Thursday, to withdraw its 380 troops from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) monitoring a 1973 ceasefire agreement signed between Syria and Israel.

"While (UN forces) can be part of agreements, they cannot constitute the foundation of Israel's security," Netanyahu told his cabinet at the start of its weekly meeting on Sunday.

Netanyahu said that he will raise the issue in his talks with U. S. Secretary of State John Kerry late this week.

In remarks made before the cabinet meeting, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz echoed Netanyahu's statements, saying that the Austrian disengagement from the Golan proves that multinational forces cannot be trusted.

"We saw what such forces are worth in Lebanon against Hezbollah, in Sinai against global jihad groups and weapons smuggling, and now in the Golan Heights," the Walla news site quoted Steinitz as saying.

"Anyone who thinks that it would be possible to combine multinational forces in defending central Israel as part of a diplomatic solution is deluding himself," he added.

On Thursday, Austria decided to withdraw its 380 personnel, more than a third of the 1,000-strong UNDOF peacekeepers, from the UNDOF.

The UN considered the move as a blow to the mission in Golan Heights, an area Israel captured from Syria and annexed in the aftermath of the 1967 war.

The Austrian decision to pull its forces from UNDOF came hours after rebels seized the UN- manned Quneitra interim border crossing in fierce battles against Syrian troops, who later retook the site.