2015-16

SUBJECT: PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW

FINAL DRAFT
UNITED NATIONS TRUCE SUPERVISION OPERATIONS IN
MIDDLE EAST

Submitted To:
Submitted By:
Dr. A. K. Tiwari
Shubham Patel

Faculty of Law, Dr. RMLNLU

No. 137

Roll

B.A. LL.B. IVth Sem.

Acknowledgements
Nothing in this whole world can be accomplished alone and my piece of work is not an
exception too, in successful completion of this work there has been help and support of various
peoples.
First of all I will like to pass a note of thanks to my teachers of Dr. A.P. Singh and Mr. Abdullah
Nasir for giving me an opportunity to work on such an interesting topic and for solving the
problems whichever I had related to the topic.
Help and support of the family and friends cant be thanked in words thank you all for being so
supportive and helpful.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of
racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality...
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
~Martin Luther King Jr.
These words of Martin Luther King Jr. try to deal with one of the most need things in the present
day human society, the above lines tried to convey that how much important peace is and why
keeping peace is good for the humankind and gave a way on how it could be done.
The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) is the very first peace keeping
operations started by the United Nations (UN), it was founded on 29 th May 1948, for
peacekeeping in the Middle East. It was created with a mission to end the strife which was
predominantly was between Israel and its neighboring states, and to enforce the 1949 ArabIsraeli General Armistice Agreements (GAAs) that until then did not lead to the peace
settlements. Their main role was to help the signatories to uphold those agreements and maintain
the cease-fire, so as there was a minimum loss of property and human life.
Creation and Need of UNTSO
The horrors of Second World left Jews as the most affected community as a whole and the
demand of a Jewish State aroused, Jewish immigrants wanted to establish their own (Jewish)
state in Palestine, though the plan itself was vehemently opposed by the indigenous population of
Palestine. It all started in 1920 when the League of Nations mandate over Palestine was assigned
to Britain, on 14th February 1947, Britain announced its intention to hand the mandate over to
UN, the UN created United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) in May and it
proposed the splitting of Palestine into Jewish Israel and a Palestine state, this plan was adopted
in UN on 29th November 1947. The Palestinians declared their opposition to the plan and went
on offensive, on 23rd April 1948 the Security Council called for a cease fire and setup an
armistice to do so, On 14th May 1948 Jewish National Council proclaimed the state of Israel, a
day before the British mandate over Palestine was due to expire, the Arab League on this
proclamation started to attack the newly created state. At the end of May Security Council issued
resolution 50, calling the warring parties to lay down their weapons, the ceasefire took place on
11th June 1948, UNTSO was created, military observers monitored the observance of the
ceasefire, when the ceasefire expired on 9th July the conflict flared up once again.

The observers were forced to withdraw, and it was due to the pressure of Security Council that
the parties left hostility for another time on 18 th July. The ceasefire worked and the permanent
solution of the problem was thought upon, the solution that arrived was that four General
Ceasefire Agreements with Israel on one side and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria on other
side. Agreements reached in these accords about the course of Israeli-Arab demarcation line and
setting up of mixed armistice commissions. This meant the changes in tasks of UNTSO too,
those were formally set out by Security Council in Resolution 73.
The work of the UNTSO observers was linked to the tasks of the mixed armistice commissions.
Each of these commissions consisted of an equal number of representatives from Israel and one
of its neighboring countries, under the chairmanship of UNTSO's chief of staff or his designated
representative, supported by a team of unarmed military observers.
The main tasks of the MACs are to investigate complaints about the application or violation of
the General Ceasefire Agreements, to assist in the implementation of the peace agreements and,
where necessary, report to both parties any activities observed along the ceasefire boundaries.
The observers also man observation posts, conduct patrols and attend the MAC meetings. They
also play a part in the exchange of POWs or the dead, and in returning lost livestock. If required,
they also help with any changes in the border or ceasefire line.
UNTSO and Middle East
The entire working of UNTSO in Middle East can be divided in 5 stages, these are as follows.
1. 1949 to 1956.
These years were chaotic and was a time of claims and counter claims between the countries and
despite the genuine work done by the UNTSO the violent incidents increased. The boundaries
created by the armistices were hastily created without looking into water rights etc, as the then
priority was to avoid the bloodshed and these were considered truce boundaries rather than real
boundaries and were not adhered and the countries usually went above their sanctioned lines,
slowly strife and discord became common in MACs. The relation between Egypt and Israel were
no in good shape as Egypt put sanctions on Israel based shipping via Suez Canal and blockaded
Gulf of Aqaba. All this coupled with many other reasons lead to Israel along with forces from
Britain and France attacking Egypt in 1956. This lead to nationalization of Suez Canal. It also
demonstrated failure of UNTSO in maintaining lasting peace which was its main objective.
2. Suez Crisis to 6 Days war.

After the 1956 War or as commonly known Suez Crisis, UNTSO greatly assisted in formation of
UN Emergency Force (UNEF), it was a group of trained military personnel for peace keeping
and emergency operations. It was the first time UNTSOs expertise was tapped in order to
establish a UN Mission, UNTSOs contribution to UNEF set the precedence for many missions
to come.
Israel after the 1956 war ceased all the cooperation/ participation in the Israeli-Egyptian MAC.
On November 8 representative from Israel said that it would withdraw all the forces from Egypt
after the conclusion of satisfactory arrangements with UN in connection with UNEF, as per this
arrangements were made and without legal change in status of UNTSO, the operations were
placed under Force. But the forces were not withdrawn till January 1957 and after the
deliberations in UN, Israel said that the forces would be withdrawn on March 7-8.
Lebanese sector was calm during this period and MAC met regularly.
In the Jordan sector the main problem was caused due to illegal crossing of the border and use of
Army for parading in Jerusalem with armaments, Jordan reached the MAC on the issue which
said that same should not be done, Israel persisted on doing so, UN on April 1961 endorsed the
opinion of MAC by way of Resolution 179.
The conflict between Israel and Syria arose due to unwarranted use of agricultural use of DMZ
between them by Israelis despite being stopped by the UNTSO and due to this heavy fighting
started, the other factors in this conflict were Lake Tiberius where the Syrian authority interfered
with the legitimate work of the Israelis, the Israeli action taken in response to that interference in
the form of an attack by Israeli regular army forces against Syrian regular army forces on Syrian
territory. It also noted that in violation of the provisions of the General Armistice Agreement
concerning the DMZ, the Zone had been crossed by the Israeli forces that entered Syria. Israel
was condemned for doing so and was cautioned to refrain from doing so.
3. Six Day War to Yom Kippur War (1967 - 1973).
In between this period UNTSO performed a vital function of helping to establish and supervise
ceasefire agreements which included new boundaries between the countries, though the mission
of UNTSO had not changed the execution of previous mission became impossible due to advent
of newly drawn ceasefire lines between Israel and Egypt-Jordan-Syria respectively. UNTSO now
did not had to supervise MACs (Mixed Armistice Commission) as Israel abrogated its initial
agreement to armistices. The Security Council added some new tasks to UNTSO charter and new
observation points were created in Egypt- Israel and Israel- Syria fronts, UNTSO also created

observational operation in Lebanese-Israel border as was urged by Lebanon due to Palestinian

activity.
4. Yom Kippur to Israel Lebanon War.
The UN Observers posts in the Middle East were drastically affected by the results of Yom
Kippur War. However, most Ops are still located in the same places today. By July 1979 Charter
for UN Emergency Force II had expired leaving only UNTSO in the area. Shortly after 1973 war
the U.S. participation in UNTSO expanded to 25 officers, approximately at the same time
Soviets made a unexpected move and started supporting UNTSO and also provided Observers.
To balance the two Superpowers present in the area the participation was kept at the same level
for both U.S. and Soviets at 36 each.
5. After the Lebanon War.
The Israeli-Lebanese conflict commenced in the late 1970s, it provided the major change to the
UNTSO. After the outbreak of the Civil War in Lebanon and the Israeli invasion in the Southern
Lebanon, the UN established UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFL) UNTSOs observers were
reorganized into Observers Group Lebanon (OGL) to assist UNIFL. As Israeli penetration
advanced north, the position of OGL was changed. The UNSTO faced the low times when four
unarmed officers died due to landmine explosion just outside Beirut, four unarmed UN
peacekeepers were killed by Israel air strike on 25 July 2006.
Despite the several attempts of the UNTSO and different other international peace organization
the achievement of Peace in the Middle East seems a farfetched dream, but this intervention
certainly has bore some good fruits and to a certain extent was able to reduce the bloodshed
which would have taken place if the intervention had not been done. They have strived to protect
invaluable amount of human life and resources. UNTSO personnel have been available at short
notice and form the nucleus of the peacekeeping missions. The military observers work in multinational teams, so that any observations will always be confirmed by at least two observers from
different nations, as a measure to ensure impartiality.
Though the certain peace is still not achieved in the region but UNTSO has indeed took few
great steps in making sure it prevails.

References

Watching the War and Keeping the Peace: The United Nations Truce Supervision
Organization (UNTSO) In the Middle East, 1949-1956, Andrew Gregory Theobald.
United Nations Truce Supervision Organizations,
Untso.unmissions.org