Russia’s top foreign policy MP says Syria-Israel relations needed a “qualitatively new solution” and Russian peacekeepers could provide additional security guarantees.
“The issue has not been yet solved, it is being considered. We
must take some real action because we cannot exclude that the
Syrian-Israeli topic would be involved in large-scale military
action,” said Aleksey Pushkov who currently chairs the Lower
House committee for international relations.
Speaking at a Moscow press conference on Monday the MP said it
was too early to say that Vladimir Putin’s suggestion of placing
Russian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights lacked perspectives or
could not be implemented.
He added that it should not come as a surprise that the Israeli
authorities would oppose this step, but warned about possible
consequences. “Assad could be replaced by radical Islamists in
comparison with whom Assad would seem an angel from heaven. The
people who are now offering friendship to Israel would not
necessarily see Israel as their partner when they come to power,
rather they would see it as an enemy,” Pushkov told
reporters.
The MP called upon Israeli leaders to pay more attention to the
possible future scenarios in Syria and added that Russia could
play a positive and stabilizing role in the region.
The idea of placing Russian peacekeepers on the Golan Heights was
voiced by President Vladimir Putin on June 7, after it was
announced that the Austrian contingent was withdrawing from the
area as tension rose due to the internal crisis in Syria.
Such a move is against the UN-backed international agreement on
the Golan Heights that forbids permanent members of the Security
Council from participation in the peacekeeping force on the
Syria-Israel border.
After UN confirmed this, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Gennadiy Gatilov wrote in his Twitter that “One should not quote
limitation that date 40 years back. The task of maintaining peace
and stability call for a different political thinking”.
Days after the suggestion was made public, the Russian military
announced on Monday that the Airborne Troops had formed a
separate peacekeeping brigade, specially designed to act as
peacekeepers under the aegis of the United Nations or the
Russia-led CSTO security bloc. The brigade received the status of
a peacekeeping unit on June 1, 2013, said Vladimir Shamanov, the
commander of the Russian Airborne Troops.
This article originally appeared on: RT