FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 2004
Israel set to expand Golan settlements
AP
JERUSALEM: Israel has approved a plan to spend at least $56 million to expand settlements on the occupied Golan Heights, sending mixed messages ahead of possible peace talks with Syria, officials said Wednesday.
The decision came as a member of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party was reportedly preparing to travel to Damascus to look into President Bashar Assad's recent call for the renewal of negotiations.
Several Israeli officials told Israeli media Wednesday the expansion plan was set in October, before Assad initiated his offer in a New York Times interview in mid-December. One high-ranking official said that Sharon hoped to resume peace talks with Syria.
But hard-line Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz, who initiated the expansion, said there was "no dialogue" with the Syrians and that Israel sought to increase its population in the Golan Heights to strengthen its hold there ahead of any talks.
In response to Assad's offer, Sharon said this week that Syria must crack down on terror groups operating from its territory. Islamic Jihad and Hamas are among the groups that have offices in Damascus.
Sharon also indicated that Israel would not comply with any Syrian condition that Israel agree in principle to give up the Golan a strategic plateau captured from Syria in 1967 prior to the opening of talks between the bitter enemies. Israel has annexed the Golan, though no country recognises its rule there.
Sharon's predecessor, Ehud Barak, came close to returning the area in peace talks in 2000 but the two sides couldn't agree on the final details.
Under the new settlement plan, Israel hopes to bring 900 families to the Golan in the next three years, said Katz. Though he claimed the expansion would double the population on the Golan within three years, Golan residents denied that, saying that about 18,000 people live in the area.
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