"Israel" decides to speed up Golan housing projects

Source: AFP, 20-12-2006
JERUSALEM (AL-QUDS): "Israeli" Interior Minister Roni Bar-On said Tuesday he intended to accelerate housing projects on settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, defying recent Syrian calls for peace talks.
"I made the decision after I toured the Golan Heights where I saw that the Syrians were accelerating the construction of houses in the town of Quneitra" on the border with "Israel", Bar-On told Army Radio.
"Instead of leaving this area in ruins as they had for decades, the Syrians want to populate the area which means this is more than a war front for them," he said.
A leader of the Golan local council, Sami Bar-Lev, said the construction of 400 additional homes is under way in Katzrin, the largest Zionist settlement where about 7,500 people live.
"Israel" captured the strategic Golan Heights plateau from Syria in the 1967 Arab-"Israeli" war and disputes over the return of the territory contributed to the collapse of peace talks in 2000.
On Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rejected renewing peace talks despite a call by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We do not have the impression that there is currently a basis for opening negotiations with Syria," Olmert told a news conference.