This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Laddous urged a brief ceasefire. He hoped doing so would expedite release of captive peacekeepers. Syrian military units were falsely accused of shelling areas where they're held. They're cooperating responsibly with UN officials. They're trying to rescue Blue Helmets.
Captors call themselves Martyrs of Yarmounk. An Arabic video said they're "holding UN disengagement forces in Golan Heights, until the forces of Bashar Al Assad withdraw from the outskirts of the village of Jamla back to their positions.""We call on the US and the United Nations and the Security Council."
"We call on them to get Assad forces out in order to release these forces."
"We will not release them until after the Assad forces have withdrawn from the border village of Jamla back to their positions, and if they do not withdraw back within 24 hours, we will deal with these forces as prisoners."
Russian UN ambassador spoke for other Security Council members, saying:
"The members of the Security Council demanded the unconditional and immediate release of all the detained UN peacekeepers and called (sic) upon all parties to cooperate with UNDOF in good faith to enable it to operate freely and to ensure full security of its personnel."
Churkin urged countries able to influence opposition fighters to demand immediate release.
Syria's UN ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, said Syrian forces risk their lives to free them. "We know where (they) are, and we know what we are doing," he said. "We are paying a huge price for their safety."
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
