UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is negotiating with Sweden the possibility of setting up a Scandinavian force to replace the Austrian soldiers who were pulled out of the peacekeeping force stationed on the Syria border, a senior Israeli official said.



Ban also called on Wednesday for expanding the United Nations Observer Force on the Golan Heights and upgrading its capabilities.



Austria’s 380 soldiers in UNDOF completed their withdrawal from the Golan Heights buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Wednesday. Some 90 soldiers have already left the country, while the rest are staying at a UN base In the Golan Heights waiting for their flights back to Austria.



The UNDOF mandate, which must be renewed every six months, expires on June 26. In a periodic report on UNDOF’s performance, issued on Wednesday, Ban told the UN Security Council members that he wanted to make changes to the peacekeeping force and its mandate. These changes include “enhancing the self defense capabilities of UNDOF, including increasing the force strength to about 1,250 [from 900] and improving its self-defense equipment.”



Ban also said that the escalation on the Israel-Syria border endangered the Disengagement Agreement the two countries signed in 1974.



Ban and the former UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, spoke by phone with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and asked that his country send soldiers to UNDOF. Bildt’s initial response was positive, the Israeli official said, however the Swedes made it clear they are willing to send soldiers only as part of a larger Scandinavian force that will include troops from Finland, Norway and Denmark. The Swedes are also interested in commanding the entire UNDOF force, which also includes units from India and the Philippines.



The Swedes also want to boost UNDOF’s mandate and turn it into a more robust force that would be able to defend itself if attacked. They have received the opinion of the UN legal adviser that even the current mandate allows the use of armored personnel carriers equipped with machine guns and for all UNDOF soldiers to be given personal weapons. Today only some UNDOF soldiers carry weapons.



The Swedes also want to clarify the rules of engagement, which are currently vague and basically do not allow the soldiers to respond if attacked.



While Israel was aware of the United Nations contacts with Sweden, the official said it is deliberately not taking an active role. “We’re closely following the move by the UN secretary-general but we aren’t initiating any contacts with Sweden or other countries,” he said. “The responsibility for replacing the Austrians is the United Nations’ not Israel’s.”



According to reports reaching Jerusalem, Ban and his associates are furious with the Austrian government for pulling its soldiers out so quickly, ignoring his requests to conduct the withdrawal in a staged fashion. Western diplomats say Ban believes the Austrian’s hasty withdrawal undermines the legacy of UN peacekeeping forces.



At the same time, diplomats in Ban’s bureau and other diplomats involved in the talks to shore up UNDOF were questioning Israeli diplomats at the United Nations about remarks made by some Israeli officials in recent days.



For example, Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum, during a visit to Moscow on Monday, said that Israel wouldn’t object to having Russian soldiers join UNDOF.



“If President Putin has decided to deploy his forces there, I don’t think Israel will oppose that. We always want somebody to be there to monitor the situation,” she told Ekho Moskvy radio. “We would like any forces that could assume responsibility. Those can be Russian, Austrian or Australian. That doesn’t make any difference to us at all.”



Kirshenbaum also said Israel would prefer that UNDOF be active and not just sit in its bunkers.



“We would like to have forces that would be actively involved, at the very least in ensuring peace and security between us,” she said.



Diplomats from the United States, among other countries, asked members of Israel’s UN delegation whether Kirshenbaum’s remarks represented the government’s position. The confused diplomats weren’t able to answer.



Kirshenbaum said yesterday that in the interview she had not directly addressed the issue of Russian soldiers on the Golan Heights, but said that Israel would want to see on the Golan, “Any peacekeeping force that would uphold international agreements and help maintain quiet.”



Similar questions arose in response to remarks by International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz, who, in a briefing to the foreign press this week, said Israel could no longer rely on international peacekeepers, and cited as an example the disintegration of UNDOF on the Golan Heights.



Steinitz’s remarks were widely quoted by international news agencies. As a result, diplomats from the Philippines, which has hundreds of soldiers serving in UNDOF, also demanded clarifications from Israel’s UN contingent. They also demanded that Israel issue both a formal retraction and statement of support for UNDOF.

Open gallery view The Golan Heights Credit: Gil Eliahu