Security Council members agree that Eritrea’s treatment of U.N. peacekeepers on its disputed border with Ethiopia is “unacceptable,” but the council needs more time to deliberate, its president said.

The Eritreans have obstructed U.N. peacekeeping efforts for the past 1 1/2 years with its military occupation of part of a buffer zone and restrictions on U.N. night patrols, supply routes and diesel fuel, according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

South Africa’s U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, council president for April, spoke to reporters Tuesday after closed-door council discussions on Ban’s recent report outlining four possible options for the peacekeeping mission.

Calling the decision on the mission’s future “difficult and complicated,” he said the council needs more time to deliberate.

Tensions between Eritrea and Ethiopia remain high because of Ethiopia’s refusal to accept a 2002 ruling by an independent boundary commission on the border demarcation between the two countries, which awarded the key town of Badme to Eritrea.

Eritrea and Ethiopia have been feuding over their border since Eritrea gained independence from the Addis Ababa government in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war.

A 1,700-strong U.N. force has been monitoring a 15-mile wide, 620-mile long buffer zone between the Horn of Africa neighbors under a December 2000 peace agreement that ended a 2 1/2-year border war.

In an April 16 letter to the Security Council, Eritrea’s U.N. Ambassador Araya Desta said the U.N. simply needs to ensure Ethiopia complies with treaty obligations already in place.

“Eritrea cannot understand or accept this academic game of contemplating various scenarios and options in the abstract,” he said.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, in a March 31 letter, accused Eritrea of trying to “humiliate” U.N. peacekeepers and urged the Security Council to impose sanctions on Eritrea to ensure that it fulfills all provisions of the 2000 agreement.

Ban’s report warned that a new war could break out between Eritrea and Ethiopia if the U.N. peacekeeping mission withdraws entirely.