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Military Peacekeeping in the Middle East
In August 1963, General von Horn resigned in exasperation. Three months later the entire Yugoslav component was withdrawn, leaving no more than 25 men to check on observance of the agreement in a vast and inhospitable land. Von Horn turned over acting command of the mission to Col. Branko Pavlovic, who was relieved by Lieut. Gen. Pem Singh Gyani of the Indian Army. He had been seconded from his post as commander of the U.N. Emergency Force in Gaza and Sinai. In the last year of its existence, UNYOM reported to Pier P. Spinelli, special Representative of the Secretary General for Yemen and Head of the Yemen Observation Mission. His mandate was to accomplish by political negotiation what had not been possible by soldiers “observing, certifying and reporting.” The mission, terminated in September 1964 after 15 months of life, was not a success. The three nations involved—Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt—had agreed to the U.N. mission, but soon showed they weren’t interested in peace on U.N. terms. The fourth disputant, the Royalist force of the Imam Badr, did not feel bound by an agreement to which it had not been party. Saudi Arabia and Egypt were to fund the UNYOM, and in the end they did; but the life of the organization was extended by just two and three month intervals as the two nations expressed reluctance to make their contributions and dissatisfaction with aspects of the arrangement. Under the best of political circumstances, the tiny force was totally inadequate for its job in an area encompassing the crushing, humid heat of the Red Sea coast, the kiln-like, dry heat of the inland desert, and the obstacles to movement and communication posed by the country’s mountain massifs. The Second U.N. Force—UNEF II After considerable preparation, Egypt and Syria launched coordinated attacks on Israel in October 1973 in what became known as the Yom Kippur or Ramadhan War. When the fighting broke out, the thinly scattered observation posts of the U.N. Truce Supervision Organization, the only United Nations peacekeepers on the Suez Canal and on the Golan Heights, were quickly overrun or bypassed. (The United Nations Emergency Force had ceased to exist at the outbreak of the Six Day War of 1967.) The United States and the Soviets—each with clients involved—threatened each other, but mutual fears of a confrontation encouraged them to engage in a unified effort to end the war. On October 21, they jointly presented a resolution to the Security Council calling for a cease-fire and for negotiations to start between the parties concerned. A few days later the Security Council created a new emergency force, UNEF II, to supervise the cease-fire and to act as a buffer between the Arab and Israeli soldiers. Within 24 hours of the Security Council decision, units seconded from UNTSO and the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cyprus were in the field. Cyprus was and is a valuable staging area for the United Nations. Several peacekeeping units serving in the Middle East have been rotated in and out of the island for convenience. Although Cyprus may be considered in the Middle East, the U.N. Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is not covered in this or in most other writings on Middle East peacekeeping. It should be noted, however, that the UNFICYP operation is generally considered one of the U.N.’s successes. By the terms of a January 1974 agreement, Israeli troops withdrew from the west bank of the Suez Canal. Although the entire canal was now again in Egypt’s control, the Israeli Army was separated from the canal by only a narrow band of territory. The canal was, in fact, within easy reach of the Israeli artillery. A year and a half later, in September 1975, another agreement between Egypt and Israel increased the distance between the Israelis and the canal and provided for a U.N.-supervised neutral zone. The agreement also stipulated that Egypt would permit non-military cargoes to pass through the canal to and from Israel. Return of control of the canal to Egypt had permitted the clearing of the canal to begin, and after 8 full years of idleness, the canal was reopened for the second time in 18 years. UNEF II drew 7,000 troops from 13 countries (Austria, Canada, Finland, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Poland, Senegal and Sweden), and was more representative of U.N. membership than any of its predecessors. It had a budget of $60 million for its first year. Maj. Gen. Ensio Siilvasuo of Finland, named commander of UNEF II, was a highly regarded officer and one of the observers in Lebanon in 1958, a company commander with UNEF in Gaza, and with a Finnish contingent in Cyprus. Siilvasuo served as Deputy to General Bull in UNTSO, before taking over from him as Chief of Staff in 1970. The Security Council excluded the five major powers from participation in this peacekeeping force, but did permit Russian and American personnel in the area as unarmed observers. Early in 1974 the Security Council reduced the strength of UNEF II from 7,000 to 4,500 men. However, the September 1975 Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement, with its creation of a neutral zone to be patrolled, necessitated the expansion of the force from some 4,000 to almost 5,000.
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