UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (UPI) -- Security concerns in the Middle East necessitate the renewal of the mandate for a U.N. observer mission monitoring an Israeli-Syrian truce, U.N. officials said.
The U.N. Security Council renewed the mandate for the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force until the end of the year. UNDOF is mandated with monitoring the cease-fire brokered between Israel and Syrian in 1974.
UNDOF was established by U.N. Security Council Resolution 350, which followed a disengagement agreement between Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights.
In his latest report on UNDOF, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that while the situation in the area was "generally quiet," regional security remained tense.
Claude Heller, the Mexican head of the rotating president of the U.N. Security Council, said regional instability prompted the unanimous extension of the UNDOF mandate.
"The situation in the Middle East is tense and is likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached," he said in a statement.
A $47.9 million budget for UNDOF operations through June 2011 is under review by the U.N. General Assembly.
