Mideast Report

Friday, July 13, 2001 | by

JERUSALEM (JTA)—France criticized a call from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for an expansion of Jewish settlements on the Golan Heights.

"An eventual peace in the Middle East is predicated on the supposition that the Golan will be returned to Syria according to terms to be negotiated by the parties," a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Sharon told Golan residents on Tuesday that only an expanded Jewish presence there could "turn the settlement of the Golan to a reality that cannot be reversed."