The UN Security Council voted unanimously this eveing for a seven-month renewal of the UN observer force on the Golan Heights that serves as a buffer between Syrian and Israeli armies.
The council, echoing the views of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said that the situation was tense and would remain so until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. The UN Disengagement Observer Force or UNDOF, with some 1,100 soldiers, was established in May 1974 to supervise a cease-fire and troop disengagement agreement that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
The mandate for the peacekeepers was extended until Dec. 31 and includes soldiers from Austria, Canada, Japan, Poland and Slovakia.
In a report to the Security Council, Kofi Annan said Israel and Syria had agreed to extend the mission and that the region was generally quiet except for the Shebaa Farms area. When Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000 after a 22-year occupation, Lebanon, Syria and the Hizbollah guerrillas who operate in southern Lebanon said the Shebaa Farms were part of Lebanese territory and that Israel must evacuate from the area.
But the United Nations, citing a variety of maps, said the area was part of lands that Israel captured from Syria in 1967 unless Syria and Lebanon agreed to formally change the borders, which they have not.
Hizbollah guerrillas have resumed border attacks until the area is returned to Lebanon and Israel has retaliated.