However, the US State Department accepted that Syria had “not been implicated directly in an act of terrorism since 1986”. Washington also said that Syria had co-operated with the United States and other governments in investigating al-Qaeda.
Syria has traditionally opposed Islamist groups operating within the country and has brutally repressed them in the past. But it has supported those engaged against Israel, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria’s relationship with the United States therefore remains uneasy.