Mount of Olives Citadel

The Mount of Olives Citadel (Arabic: قلعة جبل الزيتون qal‘at jabal az-zaytūn) is a citadel dating to the mid-15th century, located atop the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. It is today a small but very important base of the Arab Army, also housing the General Staff Headquarters, home to the General Staff of the Union Defence Forces (UDF), namely, the chiefs of staff and their immediate deputies of each of the three branches of the UDF (the Army, Navy and Air Force). The Mount of Olives Citadel is the closest military base to the Garden Estate (the Presidential Palace), and is thus also the headquarters of the Republican Guard, an elite mechanized and special operations division of the Arab Army responsible for protection of the President of the Arab Union and his administration; the Republican Guard also has a small base on the western grounds of the Garden Estate, and is the only section of the armed forces allowed on the grounds of the Presidential Palace.