MOSCOW, June 8 (Xinhua) -- A Russian official on Saturday said Moscow should be allowed to send U.N. peacekeepers to the Golan Heights despite being prohibited from doing so as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
"We should not cite 40-year-old restrictions here," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said in his Twitter account. "The tasks of maintaining peace and stability require a different political mentality."
If the United Nations was really concerned over tensions in the Golan Heights, Gatilov said, "then sending a Russian contingent there is the solution."
President Vladimir Putin offered Friday to send peacekeepers, as part of the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force, to replace the Austrian peacekeepers who were to withdraw due to an "unacceptable level of danger to its personnel."
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said later it was impossible to accept Russia's offer because the country is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
"We appreciate the consideration that Russia has given to provide troops on the Golan," he told reporters. "However, the disengagement agreement and its protocol between Syria and Israel does not allow for the participation of permanent members of the security council in UNDOF."
Gatilov argued that decision on the composition of peacekeeping contingent should lie solely in the UNSC.
"It is not in the terms of reference of the U.N. secretary-general's spokesman to decide what countries can be represented in the contingents on the Golan Heights," he said. "Such decisions are made by the UNSC."
The Golan Heights have been occupied by Israel since 1973. The UNDOF has been monitoring the ceasefire between Syria and Israel since May 1974.
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