Although the potential showdown between Syria and the United States seems to have been averted for the time being, as developments in the last few days indicate, many outstanding issues in Syrian–American relations remain unresolved, and have not, in fact, been seriously addressed yet.[1] As such, and with the United States now firmly established in neighboring Iraq, these issues are bound to be revisited in the near future, perhaps as soon as the Syria Accountability Act is debated once more by the U.S. Congress. Due to the apparent inability of the two sides to show the flexibility necessary for reaching workable compromises, the two countries seem to be hurrying along the path toward confrontation. The recent mini-crisis, therefore, seems like a prelude or an opening salvo in an ongoing diplomatic showdown that has all the possibilities of leading to war.

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