Golan heights an 'integral part" of Israel: PM

AFP, September, 2006

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the occupied Golan Heights an integral part of Israel and said he would never hand it back to Syria. "As long as I serve as prime minister the Golan Heights will remain in our hands because it is an integral part of the state of Israel," Olmert was quoted as saying by Israeli newspapers.

Israel captured the strategic plateau in the 1967 Six Day War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. Damascus has repeatedly demanded the return of the Golan Heights, and peace talks between the Jewish state and Syria have stalled since January 2000 when both sides failed to reach agreement on the territory. Then Labour prime minister Ehud Barak had envisaged handing back most of the territory, save for a small strip along the eastern shore...