A satellite image of an unknown facility bombed by Israeli jets in September because it was suspected to be a nuclear reactor
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The sudden uptick in tension comes at a moment when Syria had begun to appear as one of the bright spots in a troubled region. U.S. officials had acknowledged that Syria had begun to stem the flow of insurgents into Iraq, while last spring, Damascus revealed that it had been holding indirect peace talks with Israel. President Assad, moreover, had said peace in the Middle East was possible within two years, if only the U.S. would sponsor direct talks, and hopes were high that the incoming Obama Administration would do just that.
The news about the secret U.S. raids into Syria and the possibility of a Syrian nuclear weapons program paint a darker picture of just how deep hostility may have run between the U.S. and Syria. "This was a real cold war," says Andrew J. Tabler, former editor of Syria Today, an English-language magazine in Damascus. "Improving U.S.-Syrian relations could be a lot harder than we thought."