$18 billion cost of Israeli withdrawal from the Golan

Israeli newspapers issued yesterday reported that the cost of the Israeli Army's withdrawal from the Golan Heights will be between 13 and 18 billion dollars, as it includes dissolving Jewish settlements and compensating the Golan's inhabitants, as well as redeploying Israeli troops in new sites.

Haaretz newspaper said the compensation for the 17,000 settlers that are distributed among 33 settlements in the Golan will reach $3.25 billion and that Israel will not be able to negotiate about the investments which were spent in the Golan because Syria will demand similar compensation for the damages in al-Quneitra city.

Deputy Spokesman for the US State Department Jim Foley said yesterday that "if we were to see peace agreements between Israel and Syria, between Israel and Lebanon, and a final status agreement, as we hope, between Israel and the Palestinians, this would be obviously a momentous and historical development. And we have every reason to believe that the Congress would want, together with the administration, to see that the United States would do what it could to make sure that those accords were a success. But we're a long way from that. We're certainly a long way from the particulars, and so it would be very premature to address any such question."