The United States on Monday urged Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” when dealing with unauthorized crossings by Arabs over its borders, and demanded that Arab countries restrain the Arabs doing the crossing. In a statement, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that "Israel like all countries has the right to prevent unauthorized crossings at its borders. Its neighbors have a responsibility to prevent such activity. We would urge maximum restraint on all sides.
Carney said that as far as the U.S. was concerned, the incident on Sunday, in which hundreds of Syrians junoed the border and entered the Golan, was Syria's fault. Carney said that the administration was "strongly opposed to the Syrian government's involvement in inciting yesterday's protests in the Golan Heights. Such behavior is unacceptable and does not serve as a distraction from the Syrian government's ongoing repression of demonstrators in its own country. It seems apparent to us that this is an effort to distract attention from the legitimate expressions of protest by the Syrian people, and from the harsh crackdown that the Syrian government has perpetrated against its own people," Carney said.
Carney said that as far as the U.S. was concerned, the incident on Sunday, in which hundreds of Syrians junoed the border and entered the Golan, was Syria's fault. Carney said that the administration was "strongly opposed to the Syrian government's involvement in inciting yesterday's protests in the Golan Heights. Such behavior is unacceptable and does not serve as a distraction from the Syrian government's ongoing repression of demonstrators in its own country. It seems apparent to us that this is an effort to distract attention from the legitimate expressions of protest by the Syrian people, and from the harsh crackdown that the Syrian government has perpetrated against its own people," Carney said.