The Philippines has set out conditions to the United Nations for more than 300 Filipino peacekeepers to stay in the Golan Heights, including additional weapons for their protection in the volatile buffer region separating Israel from Syria, the government said Sunday. U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario in a meeting Friday in New York that the world body would work "with all stakeholders to provide what is needed consistent with the disengagement agreement," the Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement quoted by the Associated Press. President Benigno Aquino III's administration did not immediately say whether the U.N. pledge would be enough for it to decide to keep 342 Filipino soldiers in the Golan Heights beyond Aug. 11, when the Philippine contingent is to be replaced by fresh troops. Aquino has sought increased security for the troops, saying they face "an undoable mission" if their security in the increasingly violent buffer zone is not bolstered. Austria pulled its 377 peacekeepers from the 911-member force last month, leaving only Philippine and Indian troops.
