UN officials began negotiations with Syrian rebels on thursday to free a group of captured UN peacekeepers, although the rebels assured that peacekeepers' well-being, distancing themselves from threats to hold them hostage.
The peacekeepers, who are from the Philippines, were seized on Wednesday, in the Golan Heights region between Israel and Syria, making them the first UN forces to be drawn into the Syrian war.
Israel has remained uninvolved in the situation, as a senior official from the Defence Ministry said on Israel Radio:
“we can rely on the U.N. to persuade” the insurgent fighters to release the peacekeepers, who are from the Philippines, and that “neither the rebels nor anyone else has an interest in clashing with the international community, which it needs for support.”
See theNew York Times for full report.
